


Spaced Out

by dannyphanwriter



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Continuation, Fights, Government Conspiracy, Government Experimentation, Multi, Not a Parody, Outer Space, Past Brainwashing, Reconciliation, Soldiers, Superheroes, this is a fanfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-02-29 08:21:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 25,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18774844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dannyphanwriter/pseuds/dannyphanwriter
Summary: Waking up on an alien ship after a routine space cleanup mission was more than enough to mark this week as the worst Danny Phantom had suffered in years. It was now right up there with eating Dash Baxter's underwear his Freshman year. To add to his woes, his captors are talking about selling him into an intergalactic fight club and, to his horror, they claim he's not the only one to have been taken from earth.....





	1. Kidnapped by Space Orcs

Captured by aliens... Yep, that was Daniel Fenton's newest accomplishment. He couldn't help but roll his eyes under heavy lids as he approached whatever destination his captors had in mind for him. It had just been a routine debris clearing... One or two ectoblasts and he would float back to Amity to debrief the NSA. 

He should have known. Nothing ever went simple for Danny Phantom. Five years after coming out and he still had problems with the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady... That and the newly adopted Box Lunch.

He smiled. Honestly, that was a relief. Imagining those two doing-

Daniel shook his head and grimaced. ' Still an ew scenario.'

Opening his eyes, he blinked owlishly for a few moments. 

Neon green orbs flickered and sparked from wall to wall curiously only for him to sigh in disappointment. He was in some sort of battered metal storage box or container.

They hadn't even bound his hands or legs- not that it would have done them any good.

A hand traced the metal experimentally as he attempted phasing and his expression became horrified.

It was ectoranium. ' Houston... we have a problem.'

" Okay... They have ghost proof containers. Interesting..."

Something banged on the wall beside him as if annoyed by his voice and Daniel glared. " Not to be a buzz kill on the intergalactic fruit-loop express but can we detour back to the Milky Way? I think we missed my stop."

To his growing surprise, a panel opened. He considered charging his hands and blasting the first thing that opened the door but that thought was fleeting. He didn't know how his captors would react to a charged ectoblast to the face and showing all of his cards before he could gauge his situation wouldn't be favorable. 

A large, Lord of the Rings Orc sized humanoid with gray skin entered the space and growled angrily in a guttural, illegible snarl toward the half ghost.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. " I don't speak orc dipshit."

The creature impatiently looked out of the room and back toward what appeared to be the piloting cabin. A few more grunts and choppy snaps were exchanged and something was tossed into the cell.

Daniel looked at it curiously. It looked like a Bluetooth device. The creature mimed him putting it on and Daniel cautiously slipped the Fenton Phone in his ear out and replaced it with the alien object. 

A static voice overlapped the grunts. " Do you understand me, slave?"

Daniel frowned. " I understand that you're a kidnapping bastard." 

He looked around and smirked. "Do I at least get peanuts on this flight or am I riding coach?"

The alien looked highly annoyed by his tongue and quickly closed the distance to yank him from the floor by the collar of his jumpsuit. "You're like that other one and that's the only reason we didn't kill you on sight."

Daniel froze. " Other one?"

The creature smirked. " You aren't trying to escape at least. "

Daniel growled lowly under his breath. 'He's ignoring me.'

Something small was thrown towards him and he caught it deftly. " Eat. You won't get much once we get to the gladiators' pit."

Daniel frowned as he starred to the package in his hands. Ectoranium or not he could easily return home via a self-made portal at any time he chose.

Shrugging, he ripped open the package. The alien looking over him nodded gruffly before exiting the cell. Glancing back, it added as an afterthought. " You're younger and you're not damaged so you should fetch a higher price. The last few we snatched all seemed to be broken or unstable. Only one of them survived and it's barely been making it through its battles."

Daniel frowned. " So you've just been snatching random ghosts and putting them in a ring to fight?"

The alien snorted. " Is that what species you are?" The alien paused and motioned to several claw marks and blast spots in the room. "We've been grabbing whatever strikes our fancy. Kuhn-le was our most prized find by your planet. Sold for a hefty penny to. He was much more terrified and fought so much more valiantly to get away from us. We had to break him in... Then again he already had signs that something had played with him prior. We had to dig out the tracking tags from his spine."

Daniel paled. " You mean you took a human?!?" ' Tags?!?! Was he a military test pilot?!?!'

Daniel began mentally running through missing or presumed dead cosmonauts in his head. ' Oh my god... They snatched someone from earth and they're being used as some sort of sick entertainment....'

Daniel swallowed and the alien snickered. " Enjoy your meal."

The doors closed with a small thud. 

Daniel looked to the package in his hands and had to restrain himself from vomiting.  
He wasn't going to be able to go home just yet...not when someone still needed him.

He shook the contents of the blue package into his hands and raised an eyebrow in confusion. It was most certainly a packet of peanuts.

Of airplane peanuts no less…

' Leave it to me to find an illegal interstellar human trafficking ring on a routine space cleanup mission.'

Grabbing a few of the nuts in his gloved palm and shaking them slightly to remove some of the salt, he tossed them into his jaw and chewed slowly. 

' Kuhn-le? I've never heard of that name in any of my space books...'

He sighed tiredly and shook out the few peanuts left in the package before downing them. They popped and sparked inside his gut while he was in Phantom form but thankfully the human parts of his body would be able to digest it.

After finishing the small snack he balled the plastic up angrily and chunked it against the metal.

' How long has the guy been away from home? A year? A decade? What have they been feeding him? Have they just been throwing peanuts and randomly scavenged garbage into a cell for him to live off of?'

A palm went to his head tiredly and rubbed his brow. ' The ripped something out of him... What space program chips their pilots? Russia? Then again that name they used sounded Asian... Maybe he's from Korea?'

Daniel swiped a hand across his face and off of his chin tiredly. His head still felt sore from the blow they had landed. A normal human would most certainly have been left in a coma from that sort of handling.

' How many people and ghosts have gone missing over the years and ended up where I am now? Most ghosts can't make portals back to the zone and being so far away they'd begin fading out...'

Cradling his knees to his eye sockets and squeezing his fingers against his shins, he winced. 

After a short time of mulling over his thoughts he somewhat groggily nodded off. A stiff rapping sound on the outside of the door jarred him back and he went into a fight or flight stance out of habit. The alien who opened the door grinned broadly. " Interesting... You're trained in combat as well. That's probably a few thousand extra hiyzs added to your worth."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. " This Kuhn-le knows how to fight?"

' Probably military.'

The alien snickered. " A feral animal with a knack for skilled strategy. He tried escaping a couple of times but his owner quickly remedied that. We took a transport vehicle out of your planet's airspace and sold it off to the pits a few years ago. They executed the occupants and gave him the choice of saving one of his choosing. He asked that the youngest be spared. The infant died in transit so they threw him a small girl. You should have seen his face when they tossed her into the pit with him."

Daniel felt his stomach flop in horror. Teeth pointed and eyes sparked dangerously. " You murdered them?!? How many..."

The alien snickered. " What does it matter? They were weak. He fought so much more after the fact with the continued threat over his head that we would be able to do it again. Apparently others of your species can't breathe on our planet."

Daniel bit his tongue and silently fumed at this development. After a moment he spoke, " I need to know...How many died?"

The alien came into the room and roughly grabbed onto his arm. "Two hundred or so? They were killed more out of mercy than anything. The one he pleaded to be spared had the crueler fate."

Daniel's hands shook with a rage he, himself, didn't know he could possess. "You lied to him."

The alien snorted and pushed him forward before clipping a small rope to his neck. "We didn't lie. He pleaded that we spare the one and we delivered. We didn't shoot it and let it live it's last few moments with him. It's a shame the poor thing was so terrified of him. "

Another voice, this time female, interrupted. " Are you sure you shouldn't be cuffing him? He could try to escape."

The male leaned in appraisingly. "He won't try anything. He's resigned to his fate. With any luck that will bring up the price."

The female snorted and yanked a hand under Daniel's jaw questioningly. "These creatures have the most remarkable colorings and adaptations. His eyes almost look like they're glowing."

Daniel hissed. " Hands off. I'm married."

The female glared. " Disgusting little thing." Dropping his chin and wiping her hand against her shirt, she smiled to her crew-mate. "Market opens in ten minutes and the first fights for this quarter begin in twenty."

The male nodded and shoved Daniel forward purposefully. "Come along now. We need to get you bathed and tagged before we bring you to the block."  
Daniel bit the inside of his cheek and nodded rigidly as he was led into a bustling slum filled alleyway. Various orc-like creatures were haggling different wares and screaming out prices. One item caught his interest and caused him to stop mid-step. It was a bloodied scrap of white fabric stained in splotches of different size and viscosity. 

A heavy bidding war was issuing over the item as if it was a prized sports jersey or towel. 

A yank on the cord caused the young man to stumble slightly before he regained his footing and followed the two who had imprisoned him deftly to what looked like a futuristic cattle lot. 

A rather large and burly figure noted their entry and whistled. " I take it he's going to be on the block today?"

A smaller voice snickered from somewhere nearby. " He's the same species as Kuhn-le isn't he? He's rather thin though... Do you honestly think they'll pay for a runt?"

A female nearby laughed. " It's good to see fresh meat. Kuhn-le's starting to become less animated... All I can see are pluses to this new development. Either the runt gets murdered and Kuhn-le becomes desperate to keep his species away from us or the small-fry murders the elder."

At this, the one leading Daniel laughed. " What's up on the fighting lineup today?"

A thin looking alien with a clipboard opened a gate an ushered them in. 

" One competitor bought three glreys and has set them up to take Kuhn-le's title during the first match. Another purchased a small ship of illegals found in our sector and will be throwing one in at random for him to fight... Hmmm, after that your guess is as good as mine."

Daniel swallowed. " What's a glrey?"

The female who had piloted the shuttle that had detained him snickered and dramatically turned with her hands raised to mimic claws. " Giant four-legged beasts with jaws that split three ways and dagger-like fingers that cleave meat from bone."

Daniel raised an eyebrow and frowned. " What pleasure do you get out of throwing something like that into the ring?"

The thin one, who had opened the gate and was now pushing Daniel in, snickered. " A little blood and adrenaline always helps to keep the action going longer." 

A hand clamped to Daniel's neck and turned his face. " Hold still..."

Daniel growled and tried to shoot up only for a leg to kick at the back of his knee. A small piece of metal was pressed against his earlobe and he felt himself biting his lip as it was roughly ripped into the flesh. " There, it's tagged. It can go by Jaxn. Your number for sale is JX657. Use the auction block three doors down on your left after you're done bathing it."

Daniel winced and shifted rigidly as he was yanked up and thrown headlong into a small covered area. " Clean up. You have one minute."

Daniel looked to the large male angrily before hissing. " How? I don't exactly see a fucking shower valve!"

The larger alien muttered a small string of profanities before cutting on the water and throwing a strange sponge-like material at him. " Scrub between everything and change into the suit in the stall with your sale number. Leave your other clothes in the wash area. If the buyer chooses they'll be returned to you."  
Daniel nodded and quickly shut the curtain. It was easy enough to dissipate his ghostly clothing so he wouldn't be forced to drop or leave anything besides some of his dignity. Washing frantically and biting his lip to keep his anger in check, he quickly phased off the residual water and dawned the purplish blue jumpsuit his captors had provided. 

He clenched his eyes shut as he slipped it over himself and snarled slightly at the repeated mantra strumming in his head. 'Save this poor guy, get him to earth and make triply sure that our space defense gets beefed up. Train individuals to fight these smucks in the event they try picking more of us up for fucking gutter based human fight clubs... Save this poor guy-'

The curtain was ripped aside and Daniel was pulled out with a startled yelp by his hair. The male smirked. " It cleaned up well."

The female snickered. " Hurry. They've begun bidding. The rumors have spread about our prize and several buyers are already clambering at the appeal of a younger male being set to take the place of the undefeated champion of the arenas... "

Daniel deftly walked behind them as they made there way to the bidding area.


	2. Enter Kuhn-Le!

Bidding had been a heartless and cruel mashup of aliens yelling prices and the occasional cry of a weapon piercing a competing voice. Daniel was purchased by a gruff looking older alien with quills that ensnared to create a strange beard arching from his brows and down to his chin. 

The amount was credited instantaneously and Daniel fought his urge to flee as a strong hand grabbed onto his neck and threw him to ground in front of his new owner. 

The male tapped him with a walking cane flippantly. " Yes, you'll do quite nicely. I paid a hefty penny, so you better not disappoint."

Daniel bit his tongue to quell any sarcastic remarks he wanted to make as he was prodded to rise and ushered toward the arena. " You are the main event tonight. The owner of this ring and of Kuhn-le has agreed to wager the coliseum and sixteen million hiyzs in the event you defeat his reigning champion in combat." 

Daniel raised an eyebrow as he was pushed toward what looked like a black room with a faint grate at the end. " And what of Kuhn-le? What does he get if I lose?"

The male snickered. " From what I understand he was promised to be freed but even I know that's a bunch of rubbish."

Daniel's eyes narrowed and sparked as a calloused and clawed hand patted his cheek. " Give him an entertaining send-off, hmmm?"

And with that, the door slammed shut. Daniel went to phase out and bumped against it painfully. ' More ectoranium... They must harvest the stuff as a building material...'

A voice echoed from the area light was pouring from. " Blecys and Jelris of all ages! We present your champion."

There was a metallic zap and a strangled cry as someone was shoved brutally into the middle of the arena. " Standing five nine and one hundred and twenty pounds, Kuhn-le!"

A large cheer erupted in the stadium accompanied by several boos and rude slurs.

Chains rattled unsteadily and a hunched figure weakly shifted against the clouds of dust around him before trying to stand. Daniel squinted through the small grate holes but couldn't make much out besides the faint flash of ebony and white adorning the figure’s head and what appeared to be a dirty white scrap of cloth covering his middle. Before the dust could settle the announcer snickered. " And for today's festivities we will see how he fares against not one, not two, but three! That's right! THREE GLREYS!"

A massive, excited boom echoed throughout the pavilion as three doors could be heard rolling upward. 

Daniel watched in horror as the door closest to him released a large wolf-sized dog covered in scales and tipped by an unnaturally long muzzle with scarred flesh hewn out of the cheeks. Slitted reptilian eyes snaked across the arena and, seeing the figure clouded in dust, charged. 

Daniel screamed as the animal connected to the man's back and flipped him onto the ground. There was a pained scream and a shot of bright energy before the animal hissed and backtracked away from its prey. " And the alpha has made the first mark on her packs’ prey item. The poison hopefully won't spread until after the evening's main festivities but as of now, Kuhn-le seems to be struggling to get to his feet. Let's help him shall we?"

There was a sound of a chain being snapped taunt and a muffled cry of pain as whoever was obscured thrashed against what appeared to be a leg restraint. A whisper from above caused Daniel to cringe.

" His shoulders dislocated again..."

Another voice snickered. " I'm pretty sure its arm is still broken from last time. See how they removed all of the chains except the one on his ankle?"

Another seemed resentful toward the fighter’s predicament. " They should have bred it before they broke it. It was so graceful but now it seems it's becoming sluggish..."

Several bright flashes of light echoed and the shadow tried leaping up to dodge the third creature only for the chain to rattle and retract, pulling the man back to the ground with a muted thud. 

Several ragged and strangled breathes echoed through the arena.

Daniel banged against the grate. "GET UP! Please!!! YOU CAN STILL FIGHT!!! "

The shadow seemed to hear him and clumsily attempted to get to his feet only for one of the injured animals to backtrack to his side. A tail thrashed up the dust again just as Daniel made out a small patch of brown and blue skin from under the behemoth pinning the smaller male. ‘War paint?...’

The voices chortled from above. " It's a shame they had to take so many precautions to keep him corralled. They won't even tend to the wretched creature’s injuries anymore... Look at his leg! They let the wound fester...."

There was an animalistic howl from the creature pinning the man and it slumped into the dust, obscuring the male clumsily trying to detach himself from under the beast. 

" Winner, Kuhn-le! Next round! Auctioneer J'abbie Huy please select KL476 for combat." There was a peal of collective laughter throughout the audience and in the room, on Daniel’s left, he could hear a woman and a man crying as another in their group was marched out and into the pit. Daniel ran to the grate closest to the opening and swallowed. A small green humanoid with bubblegum pink hair was being pushed out. The door clanked shut and two large bangs emanated from the room. Daniel gaped. 'They executed the other two... oh god...oh my god...'

A choked and hoarse voice cracked through the stadium with a haunting echo in rough alien dialect. "...I won't...kill...him..."

There was a collective boo throughout the arena and a hiss from someone above him. " Pitiful fool. TIME OUT."

The stadium went quiet and Daniel watched in dread as a figure in red robes entered the area. "I'm ordering you to kill him. It's just an orphaned brat. Chase the little thing down and rip it to pieces. You do this enough with other animals, so what are you waiting for?"

Daniel felt his heart clench as he banged against the cage. " STOP IT YOU BASTARDS!!!!”

The man was now obscured by the red-cloaked individual. In a rough and somewhat slang hazed alien tone, he growled back. “ I won’t kill a child. You’ll just have to shoot me.”

Daniel felt his breath catch. ‘NO.’

The red-cloaked alien snickered. “Is this not entertaining to you Kuhn-le?”

The man snarled from behind the broad-shouldered creature. “ Nothing you monsters do entertains me. Go find a large post and shove it up your-”

The red figure slung out an arm and there was a muted cry of pain. “You’re right. This lost its entertainment value the moment you opened your mouth in protest.”

There was a snap and two males jumped down with weapons drawn. “ We’ll just get rid of the little sideshow before the main event.” 

Weapons buzzed and Daniel thrashed angrily against the wall. The leader purred. “Shoot the dead weight and toss it into the kennels.”

The guns narrowed on the frightened child and time seemed to slow as a brilliant flash of energy lashed into the figure blocking Kuhn-le. The alien flailed to the side with a startled hiss and growled. Light dust began swirling around the arena as a shackled foot ran full speed toward the two males holding the child at gunpoint. 

Daniel’s eyes widened in shocked horror as the figure darted past the first guard and snapped a hand out to pull the gun away. A foot quickly tugged the chain till a small amount slackened and wrapped it around the guard’s ankle. There was a hard yank and the closest guard fell heavily onto the ground.

There was no mercy as the barrel went off against the alien’s temple. The other one snarled and took the shot at the gladiator just as he pushed himself between the attacker and the small boy. A brilliant pink dome attempted to spiral out and Daniel felt his jaw clench in horror. The blast easily shredded through the weakly energy and dug deeply into the figure’s shoulder, knocking him backward against the wall the small alien was cowering by.

‘It can’t be...Oh god….Oh god….That can’t be-’

The entire space went silent as the red-robed alien angrily got to his feet and marched over to the two prisoners. “ You cocky little bitch.” A hand whipped out and there was a muted thud as Kuhn-le was slammed against the wall near Daniel’s confinement. “ You humiliated me in front of my paying customers and you had the gall to shoot me and maim one of my hired associates.”

There was a pained hiss of air as a leg was kicked downward against the man who was still obscured from Daniel’s view. The large robed alien looked to the leftover shooter and snarled. “ Grab the pup.”

“ NO! DON'T! PLEASE! I’LL DO ANYTHING, PLEASE!!!” 

Daniel felt himself paling rapidly. That was in English. That was in _familiar_ and strained English.

Daniel’s gloved hands began beating rapidly against the containment as the man was dragged by his hair and shoved cruelly into the middle of the ring. Hands shakily tried gripping the dirt to pull himself up and ebony rings formed and sparked at his waist. Falling against the dirt, he screamed out as the chain was pulled taut. The red-robed figure snickered and kicked him again as he tried getting up. 

“ WHO WANTS TO SEE A WARRIOR BROUGHT TO DESTRUCTION?!”

A large cheer leveled through the crowd and the black and white haired figure’s head was lifted up by his spikes tresses as his arms were pinned. 

Plasmius’s red eyes teared rapidly as the child was carried kicking and screaming to the outskirts of the ring.


	3. Saving Major Tom

“ STOP! PLEASE KIDRICH! I’LL FIGHT! JUST DON’T KILL HIM! PLEASE!!!!”

Kidrich snickered and spat in broken English. “Don’t worry. I won’t harm a hair on his delicate little head.” A gun was aimed. “ Now watch.”

A large blast resonated through the stadium and Vlad thrashed out from his owner, snapping his leg against his restraint to cradle the now dead alien child in his arms. Kidrich chuckled darkly. “ You always have been soft. That was your greatest weakness Kuhn-le, one we hope will be remedied today…” A chain was yanked. “ Now drop that cheap trash before we put another bullet in you.”

Vlad either didn’t hear him or chose not to as he hugged the child’s body tighter to his own. Glowing pink tears were trailing down his face and entangling in his beard. The robed alien and his partner growled at the lack of obedience and quickly tore Vlad from the corpse. “Cut on his collar.”

“ GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HIM!!!!” Daniel screamed but his protests fell on deaf ears as the cheers rose in crescendo.

Something was switched on and the half ghost screamed in undiluted agony as rings began forming rapidly around his waist. He dropped weakly to his knees and gripped his throat as he sobbed. Vlad Masters, now with tousled black and gray hair and a spackling of the same strange coloring on his jaw, materialized with a faint pop. Tearing blue eyes weakly attempted rolling back as he pitched face first into the dirt floor. Small twitches and a light blue tint could be seen snaking up his features as rings tried to form somewhat desperately around his waist. 

‘ THEY'RE SUFFOCATING HIM!’

“ STOP!!!!!!”

Green charged in his hands and slammed against the obstruction in front of him, making a sizable dent and shaking the entire platform above him. Kidrich looked up in shock and smiled vehemently before crouching down and soothing with mock affection. “ We seem to have riled up your competitor.”

This time Daniel’s ghostly wail snapped against the barrier and nearly completely caved it in “STTTTTTTOOOOPPPPPPP!”

In the silence, one could almost hear every held breath and gasp that resonated in the amphitheater-like space.

The alien raised an eyebrow and roughly tugged Vlad’s long matted hair upward so Daniel would be able to see him through the grate. Light ivory skin was marred and scarred over in every available space and his shoulder had started seeping a deep crimson red through the torn and bloodied white shirt covering his chest. Several scraps of ripped black and purple material seemed to be tied off at various places under the shirt to keep his injuries from bleeding to freely. Vlad lapsed in consciousness and the robed figure flicked his collar off, allowing him to turn back into Plasmius with a muted thud.

Daniel snarled. “ LET ME OUT! I WISH TO FIGHT!”

The robed figure lifted a tattooed eyebrow. “ Oh? You do don’t you?” A hand was raised and the alien smirked. “Release Competitor JX657 from habitat four.”

There was a grating of metal as the hinges parted clumsily to raise the now decimated door upward enough for Daniel to pass. 

“ You’re the second one of his kind aren’t you? Strange your purchaser didn’t cuff and collar you. You’re probably just as ill-trained and unmanageable as this disgusting abomination.” Vlad was lifted up slightly and a hand went to his now wounded shoulder viciously. Vlad’s red eyes weakly fluttered open and he hissed as his wounded arm was twisted backward and rammed against the dirt. A broken wail of agony fluctuated the space accompanied by mockingly cheery laughter from throughout the pavilion. “Kuhn-le?”

Vlad winced and clenched his eyes shut but refused to respond. Vlad’s owner snarled and looked to Daniel bitterly before speaking in English. “ You are probably the same regarding his little hindrance as well, hmm?” 

Vlad stiffened and his tear stained face looked up to where the alien was speaking only to go wide-eyed. Eyes clenched shut in unrestrained fear. In ghost undertones, he begged. _“Whoever you are...run...please...They’ve killed ghosts...I can’t watch another…”_

Daniel paled rapidly. ‘ He doesn’t recognize me.’ 

The leader hissed and before Daniel could react the collar was activated again. Rings popped out and a strangled gurgling noise filled the space. “You and your blasted language learning. You’d think knocking your teeth out every time would cut back on you cheeky little tongue’s use but here we are again with those nifty little fangs grown back and sharpened with treacherous syllables.” 

Vlad gasped in the oxygen-devoid space and his muscles began going limp. There was a stiff kick and Vlad crumpled further. Daniel’s hands charged with bright green energy and he blasted the remaining alien holding the gun twenty feet into the air. The black-suited thug landed with a wet crack against the risers on the other side. Vlad had stilled abruptly against the ground and Daniel quickly ran to his side as a menagerie of duplicates flooded the space. Daniel yanked at the collar and chain desperately. Vladimir’s skin was now completely ashen and his eyes had dulled. Daniel’s fingers latched onto the man’s neck in search of a pulse and, feeling none, he growled angrily and charged a hand. The zap rocketed through Vladimir’s form and a strangled gasp echoed as one of Daniel’s duplicates tossed him a large gun. The barrel fit roughly against Daniel’s palm as he cocked it and fired against the chain tethered to Vladimir’s left ankle. 

There was a faint hiss and sparks flew as the shot connected and severed the link. Looping arms under the elder’s spine, Daniel reached out and grabbed onto Kidrich as he tried to flee to the upper areas of the crowd. A green blast connected point blank against its spine and with a muted hiss the heartless ruler of the fighting area crumpled to his knees. Finding a key-shaped object around the gray-skinned and heavily tattoo male’s neck, Daniel quickly laid Vlad down. He had started weakly convulsing against him again and now Daniel could see with horror that Vlad’s nose and ears had started bleeding rapidly. White gloves fumbled with the collar until a small one-inch slit was found on the underside. With a swift jerk and a snap of the key, the metal clanked against the ground, allowing Plasmius’s dulled red eyes to appear as the rings crackled and morphed him back to the form that could sustain itself without oxygen. Daniel’s arms quickly pulled him up and into his hands as they flew full speed from the rounded arena and into the upper layers of the atmosphere. 

Reaching a safe distance. Daniel tensed at the sudden static sensation that ran through his middle. Eyes quickly trailed downward to the halfa now draped over his shoulder. Rings were trying to form. Daniel lifted him up and gently reached a hand to wipe away a tear that had frozen from the cold. “ Vlad? Come on Fruit- Loop...Can you hear me? You can’t shift back yet...Please…”

Plasmius coughed weakly but continued staring off numbly as the two rings began struggling around his middle.

‘FUCK. He’s gone too long without oxygen.... '

Lifting his free arm, the twenty-two-old quickly snapped open a portal just big enough to connect them to the biggest paranormal hotspot on earth and quickly darted through it with his cargo.


	4. Blue Skies

Vlad Masters groggily shifted against the limb supporting him as he was flown through a brilliant green vortex and into a bright, blue earthen sky.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen anything so clearly. The green was almost like the portal Jack and him had cobbled together with Maddie. He winced weakly and attempted to focus on the black and white blur comforting him as they flew. Brilliant green eyes were tearing and pleading with him for something. 

‘ Why is a ghost crying for me?’

The thought was cut off shortly by the feeling of something sharp and unpleasant trickling through his flesh and spreading to polarities at his waist. Normal human flesh was coming back and with it, Vlad’s strength waned.

‘ It must have been the portal… When Jack activated it I must have gotten blasted into the stratosphere. That weird blue skin is also probably a side effect….I wonder...if they..could...help…...ugh’

Red eyes flickered to blue and rolled back with a muted thud as Vladimir’s body phased without his knowledge and began falling downward from Daniel’s startled grasp.


	5. Little Blue Man

Daniel’s heart was racing rapidly as he dived and quickly latched onto Vlad just before he could connect against the ground below them. Turning intangible, he quickly sloped their decent and landed near a tree in the park. Laying Vlad down and putting a hand to his neck he raised an eyebrow in perplexion. Vlad hadn’t aged a day since he last saw him and his hair had begun regressing back to its original black. If anything….he looked younger.

Eyes trailed to the blood rapidly leaking onto the tattered shirt and Daniel quickly bundled him back into his arms.

Vlad let out a small whimper as he was lifted from the ground and carried full speed to Amity General Hospital.

Barreling through the doors with him draped in his arms, he growled with charged eyes. “ QUICK! I NEED A DOCTOR!”

Several nurses noted the heavily bleeding and injured individual in his arms with horror before quickly rushing to their aid. A gurney was brought out rapidly and Vlad was laid against it as hands began rummaging through the fabric. Daniel swallowed and followed at a frantic speed as he was wheeled into the nearest available room. Lifting him from one bed and into the other he quickly phased off all of Vlad’s clumsily made bandages and his tattered shirt so that the doctors could get to his injuries. Green eyes locked on scar after scar and several infected gashes and holes before he was gently pushed out of the room.

Four minutes later the crash cart was called in as Vlad’s heart gave out. Daniel growled and phased through the walls at full speed. Hands pushed aside the doctors and phased through Vlad’s chest in order to manually pump his heart. “ SOMEONE CALL DR. FENTON! TELL HER DANIEL IS AT THE HOSPITAL AND THAT WE NEED SEVEN PINTS OF ARTIFICIAL ECTOPLASM!”

A blood splattered nurse quickly ran out of the room. A doctor was frantically trying to stint the large seeping bullet wound in Vlad’s left shoulder to no avail. “Phantom?! What happened to this man?!”

Daniel snarled. “ Fucking aliens.”

That got a shocked pause that quickly dissolved into more frantic movements. 

“ Quick! We need to intubate him! His airway is swelling!”

One minute passed and to Daniel’s relief, he could feel the heart in Vlad’s chest starting up again. Retracting his bloodied hand and looking to the nurse he urged. “ He needs painkillers!”

She nodded and a hand quickly began filling a newly attached IV to Vlad’s arm. 

The doctor probing the injury snarled. “ His shoulder is completely shattered. Wheel him into the operations center! We need to get this shrapnel out!”  
Daniel was pushed aside and out of the door just as Maddie and Jack Fenton came running through the emergency room doors. 

Daniel wasn’t one for crying… He hadn’t cried since his fifth birthday… But today streams of ectoplasm tinted tears trailed down his blood-drenched and hollow features before clinking against the laminate floor.

Maddie and Jack both ran to him and Jack dropped the cooler carrying the requested ectoplasm before worriedly carding his hands over his son’s person in search of damage.

Daniel shook his head rapidly and both Maddie and Jack stiffened as a team of twelve ER nurses and doctors rushed a blood and ectoplasm splattered bed out of the room Daniel had just exited. A mop of black and gray and a familiar dark circle rimmed face briefly flashed as the gurney was wheeled out. 

Jack snarled angrily and went to draw his weapon. Maddie attempted the same only for Daniel to shake his head rapidly. “DON’T! HE’S NOT VLAD!”

Jack and Maddie both exchanged confused looks before they finally took in the purple jumpsuit layered over Daniel's hazmat suit. Maddie's eyes narrowed as her face darted from the man being wheeled away as fast as humanly possible to an operating room and her son.

Swallowing, she pointed angrily. “That was most certainly Vladimir, Daniel!”

Daniel's eyes sparked and he quickly grabbed onto the cooler by their feet. “ I don't have time for this! He's dying! If you’re going to shoot, you might as well shoot me! Now get out of the way! And for fuck's sake, call Jaz!”

To Maddie's surprise, Jack put a hand to her and quickly began running with Daniel while clicking his Fenton Phone’s designated channel for Jaz. “Jazzy? We found Daniel but we're having an emergency. Meet us at Amity General Hospital as soon as possible.”

Turning to his son as they ran he questioned. “ What happened to you two!?”

Daniel growled. “ A fucking alien ship caught me for a gladiator death battle royal…. And they-” Angry tears sparked against Daniel's features. 

Maddie looked adamantly confused and horrified. “ Aliens caught you?!??!”

Daniel slammed the doors open to the operating room and ran to the leading doctor's side. Turning Vlad's chest transparent, he pointed toward the large swelling area near the shoulder that was starting to seep green. “ Take it out first. It’s ectoranium based and it's negating his healing.”

Maddie and Jack both looked to their old college friends body in horror. Ribs were cracked unevenly and warped together in portions from where the bone had mis-healed and several spots of flesh seemed to be rimmed in infection.

Maddie quickly latched a hand to the cooler and pulled out several bags of ectoplasm. “I need a clean IV bag !”


	6. A New Way of Seeing the Situation

A nurse quickly wheeled one over to them and Vlad's bloodied right arm was lifted. A short pained scream shot out and dulled blue eyes opened fearfully. Bruised legs kicked slightly as Jack leaned over and tacked Vladimir down by the top portion of his sternum.

Eyes glinted with a vague recognition and Vlad confusedly choked in ghost speak through the tube. _“…. Mr...Fenton… Jack… Where's Jack?…. It hurts….”_

Daniel paled rapidly and a hand went to Vlad's cheek. “ Vlad?!?!”

Vlad teared and two rings flashed as the ectoplasm circulated through his body and to his core. _“ Help...please...help me….”_

Daniel and the surrounding party watched in stunned horror as the rings shifted over the chest Daniel was still turning transparent. Organs flickered and morphed, as muscle and bone restructured in bright green tints. Daniel felt his eyes going wide at the new additions cradled within the elder’s internal organs. Segments seemed to have been taken and pieces of bone in his spectral form seemed to be missing the elongated segments Daniel was familiar with growing his freshman year… Most horrifying of all were the various silver dollar sized metal circles tacked on to his heart, lungs, and liver. Maddie noted the objects and swallowed fearfully. Daniel growled and quickly phased Vlad’s hole ridden and threadbare tunic off of his chest.

Vlad shivered at the sudden shift in temperature and locked his gaze with Daniel weakly. Tears started again and he choked, in ghost dialect. _“...How long….was I gone?... My friends...must have….”_ Eyes clenched as the bullet was ripped from his arm and he thrashed weakly against Jack’s hold. 

Maddie snarled. “ What is that egotistical maniac spewing now?!”

Daniel looked up to her and his expression had her immediately regretting the tone she had used. Jack was frozen in place as a hand rubbed against a small sliver of flesh layered over one of the circles of steel. He looked about ready to puke. “ We need to get these out.”

He looked up to the doctor stitching Vlad’s shoulder and growled. “Get out.”

The doctor looked panicked. “ Mr. Fenton he’s-”

Jack repeated, this time with a much loader and authoritative tone. “Everyone exit the room right now! This man is contaminated with a rare form of ectoplasm poisoning! Dr. Fenton and myself will handle it!”

Maddie stiffened at Jack’s tone and nodded in understanding. “ We ask that no one enters until the contaminate is removed. Phantom will notify you once his condition stabilizes.”

The twelve men and women in the room flinched at the hardness in her tone and looked to Vladimir defeatedly. It was more than obvious that his condition was being heavily influenced by ectoplasm and they were all ill-equipped to combat such an ailment. The doctor finishing Vlad’s shoulder nodded and commanded. “ You heard them. Everyone out.”

The room quickly cleared and Vlad winced at the sudden lack of sound around him. _“Fenton...Dr.Fenton….She must be one of Jack’s relatives…”_

Maddie growled. “ Daniel Lee Fenton?! WHAT IS HE SAYING?!”

Daniel grimaced and Jack looked to Vlad with evident worry. “ Danny? Can you phase one of these out?”

Daniel winced and nodded. “ I can try.”

A gloved white hand slipped through Vlad’s sternum and to a point just beside the left pectoral before he attached his fingers to the disk and attempted yanking it. Vlad screamed in agony and black rings flashed at his hips before tinting white spastically. A strip of white hair morphed into being in front of their eyes and Vlad’s skin flashed ivory with light blue undertones before snapping back to the unnatural blue of Plasmius. Eyes clenched and opened weakly to show a more humanoid red iris and a black pupil surrounded by milky white before the color snapped and ate away at his eyes. _“PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS!”_

Daniel bit his lip and quickly phased the object out. Vlad convulsed and his eyes closed with a small cry as the pain overtook his form. Masters flopped back moments later, a new strand of black adorning a small area by his ear where Plasmius had gained white. Jack looked to Daniel and quickly ripped the metal out of the startled younger man’s hand. There was a long pause and Jack turned to Maddie in horror. “Maddie...Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is…”

Maddie looked to his gloved hand and read the numbers and information stamped into the metal with confusion. Her fingers wrapped around the disc and brought it up into the operation room’s light as if trying to disprove the anomaly. “Jack...This has a government ID tag on it...It’s US made.”

Daniel swallowed. “ Oh god….They bragged they had to take chips out of his spine when they first caught him and he…” His eyes looked up to his parents in horror. “Mom? Dad? He doesn’t remember who I am and he keeps addressing dad as Mr. Fenton…”

Jack’s hand went to Vlad’s cheek worriedly. “ Maddie? Give him some morphine. We need to force him to shift in order to get the rest of those things out of him.”

Maddie nodded and turned to Daniel worriedly. “ How did you find him and what exactly happened?! You’ve been gone for close to a week!”

Daniel went wide-eyed in alarm. “ A week?” He croaked.

Jack nodded and began hooking up a breathing machine to the tube in Vlad’s throat so he would be able to breathe without one of them constantly having to pump air into his lungs.

Daniel looked to both of his parents in exasperation before shifting a hand back into Vlad’s chest and phasing the top layers of flesh and muscle intangible. “Where the hell do I begin?”

Maddie grabbed another bag of ectoplasm and attached it before adding the morphine. “ What happened when your radio cut out?”

Daniel winced. “ I got brained. They were on my blind side and something heavy knocked me full force into one of the satellites. After that? I was waking up in an ectoranium cell and being told I was a slave. I needed an open area for a portal so I figured waiting would be the best choice and then I found out the bastards had been taking people and Vlad was being used as-”

There was a swallow of dried air. “There was a little family of aliens in the area next to my cell… They threw a little boy into the arena after they shot his parents and Vlad wouldn’t kill a kid so his owner got mad. An order was given to execute the boy and Vlad lashed out and jumped in front of the shot. ”

Jack was worriedly lacing a hand under Vlad’s spine and, feeling the blood, he grimaced. “ What happened to the kid?”

Daniel paled and his eyes flashed. “ They dragged Vlad out into the middle of the ring and held his head up so he could see him being killed. He wouldn’t let go of the corpse afterword so they began torturing him and I couldn’t-”

A hand retracted from Vlad’s chest and blasted one of the walls nearby. Fists clenched and pure venom dripped from his jaw as he growled. “ I couldn’t stop it… The ectoranium was some sort of building material for them….”

A head stirred near the bed as two rings materialized at Vlad’s waist, this time a lighter shade of black and with more pulses of white like Daniel’s. Tears started streaming down the halfa’s face and his head jerked fearfully as Maddie’s hand came to rest against his jaw. “Vladimir?”

Eyes went wide and strangled ghost undertones echoed. _“My name...That’s my name….Vladimir….Do they know Maddie and Jack? I’m scared….”_

Daniel looked to Vlad with concern and put a hand to his jaw comfortingly. _“Plasmius? What happened to you?”_

Vlad’s brow furrowed and he shook his head tearfully. _“ That’s not my name….Are you-”_ Eyes gained a small bit of clarity and he shuttered. _“You’re that ghost..”_

There was a pained swallow against the tube. _“ Where am I?.... Am I dead?”_

There was a sharp inhale of breath and Daniel switched to English. “Vlad? What happened to you?”

Vlad grimaced and his right hand clenched weakly against the blankets. _“Jack cut on the portal… I saw green and everything started spinning… I turned and they were scared so I fled into the hall and something-”_ Vlad’s eyes flickered to the human red briefly and he grimaced. _“ I just suddenly woke up and I couldn’t breathe… It was cold and I was alone on this large rocky outcropping. My neck was bleeding green and I was in these strange clothes.”_

Daniel’s eyes grew wider with every passing sentence.

Tears became more prolific. _“Something grabbed me when I fell asleep and dragged me into a strange room. I kept waking up and my body was disappearing and then rings formed and I-”_ Eyes went wide at the memory. _“ I couldn’t breathe…”_

Daniel looked to his parents in horror and turned to Vlad somewhat frantically. “Vlad? What year do you think it is?”

Vlad grimaced and his brow furrowed. _“ How long was I with those things…. I don’t-”_

Daniel swallowed. “ I think you were gone five years, Vlad. Please….What year do you think it is?”

Vlad clenched his eyes shut and a hand squeezed against the covers again. _“I was gone five years?”_ A head shook rapidly and he backed against the bed in a dazed panic. Jack steadied him and looked to his son imploringly for answers. Vlad was practically begging. _“They never knew what happened...Jack...Jack needs to destroy the portal...It didn’t connect to the zone… I think it threw me into space….”_

A hand went to his palm and squeezed. Daniel repeated in ghost speak. _“Vladimir? What year is it?”_

Vlad was crying himself to sleep, _“1993…That’s right, isn’t it? I was gone five years...”_

Daniel grimaced and his hand tightened gently around Vlad’s. Looking up to his mom, he swallowed. “ Mom? Can you knock him out so we can finish patching him up?”

Vlad weakly registered this and gasped. _“ Oh god….She’s your mother and you’re dead?... She’s a Fenton, right?… Are you related to Jack?! What happened to you?”_

Daniel shushed him and gently carded a hand through his hair to calm him. “Calm down… I’m not dead. I’m like you.”

Vlad visibly loosened as the drug Maddie had administered began swirling through his ectoplasm enhanced cells. _“Like me?”_

His voice echoed slightly and seemed to drop off as his tongue grew heavy.

Daniel nodded gently. “ Yeah. You’re like me, Vlad… I promise your friends are going to be here when you wake up. We’re just going to patch you up so you're going to take a small nap.”

Vlad shuttered. _“It won’t be like the nightmares right?.... The ones with the white coats and the other ghosts?...”_

Daniel winced. “ What nightmares?”

Vlad began drifting off a druggedly mumbled, _“ Vague blurs….Some sort of coffin and a key….They wanted a ring and a crown but I don't-… and then there were these kids… Oh god…. they melted….”_

Daniel's expression stayed reassuring but his eyes glimmered with unrestrained hurt. “Do you remember any of it? Anything after the portal?”

Vlad sleepily blinked. _“ -was bleeding… Something exploded by..my spine…Kept passing out on the rock… it was cold and I felt sick...”_

Daniel nodded and sighed. “ My name’s Daniel. Daniel Fenton. People also call me Danny Phantom when I look like this.” Daniel smiled gently.

Vlad tried smiling around the tube. _“N-nice to m-meet you D-Daniel…”_ He glanced to his left wrist dejectedly. _“ I’d shake y-your hand but I think… the limb is a lost….c-cause…”_

Daniel frowned and gently put a hand to Vlad's left. Touching a finger, he questioned. “Can you feel this?”

Vlad gasped and clenched his eyes shut. _“ Y-yes...But why is it so n-numb?”_

Maddie noted that Daniel was checking the limb and, realizing the body language, she gently nudged her son aside and answered. “ I'm sorry… We had to give you painkillers. You're hurt really bad and the wounds need to be operated on.”

Vlad blinked weakly a couple of times. _“ She r-reminds me of M-Maddie…”_

There was a small cough and a shaky smile. _“ I hope… J-Jack proposed….”_ Tears trailed down his jaw again and his eyes widened minutely. _“Oh god...I was arguing with him before the portal cut on… He was going to break it off… I told him the portal wasn't going to work… I was trying to get out of the room to reprimand him…”_

Daniel felt his heart being torn in multiple directions and none of them pleasant. A hand squeezed comfortingly. “Shhhh… They're married. Calm down…Stop trying to speak through the tube.”

Vlad shook his head weakly as his eyes began fluttering closed. _“Daniel...I'm s-scared...Will you be here when I w-wake up?”_

Daniel smiled and nodded. “Yeah… I won't leave you.”

That seemed to be the winning sentence to calm Vlad's miniaturized panic attack and he quickly drifted off. Once he was sure Vlad was sleep, he broke down all over again. “Guys…. He doesn't remember anything from the time he got hit by the protoportal…”


	7. Test Results

Jack looked to Vladimir in horror. “You mean he's an amnesiac now?!”

Daniel shook his head rapidly. “When Vlad ran out of the lab that day, what happened?!”

Both Jack and Maddie went silent for a moment before equal looks of dread washed over there features. Maddie glanced to the metal wafer they had pulled out of Vlad's chest and her stomach turned. “We had to sign waivers detailing that the results of our research would become the property of the companies hosting our work. We were scheduled to show the protoportal a few hours before the accident and when Vlad ran out-”

Her eyes teared. “ They said he was rushed to the emergency room. Oh god… Jack…”

Jack was carding a hand through Vlad's hair and crying. He already knew what must have happened. “ They took him...the bastards took Vladimir and-”

His eyes returned to Vlad's chest angrily. “ Danny? Rip those damned things out. I don't want a single fleck of silver left in him.”

Turning to Maddie he motioned for the IV to be replaced again. “ Change the bag again. His spectral form and his human side seemed to shift when we pulled the first one and that type of change needs ectoenergy.”

Maddie nodded and quickly tore the depleted bag down from its perch. Vlad’s body was so damaged in ghost form that the ectoplasm was being sucked voraciously from the saline bags like juice pouches.

Daniel waited a brief moment for the bag to be placed and motioned for his dad to hold Vlad. “ Ready?”

Jack nodded. “ Ready.”


	8. A Man Done in Silvers and Golds

Daniel was staring at Vladimir in unrestrained amazement. The moment he had pulled the last metal disc out of him, Vlad’s ghost form had completely settled. It almost looked like a human Vlad Masters with the exception of the pointed ears and the bluish tint to his light ivory skin. Neck length white hair with a singular strand of dark ebony near his bangs could be seen just between the gap made by Maddie’s arm as she inspected him. Opening his eye and, flashing a light into the pupil, she sighed. “ The eye’s structure is human….I don’t understand…”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Grabbing one of the wafers, he experimentally shifted it into his own chest. The change was almost immediate. Green blossomed under his skin and the ice blue from his core energy seemed to strangle out the neon green in his eyes. Tearing it out and crumpling to his knees he angrily threw the piece of metal across the operating room and into the opposite wall with enough force to dent the cinder blocks. “It leaks core energy between both halves. It's a damned ghost ruphy. They must have been keeping his forms regulated… I don’t know why but that’s most certainly what these things are and the fact they placed so many of varying size in his muscles and against his internal organs… ”

Jack was looking to Vlad’s ghost form in grief and a hand titled Vlad’s face from side to side questioningly. There was a large scar poking out from his chin and curving through the tissue on his lip. A gloved hand trailed over it and he swallowed. “Maddie? Take out the IV… I think his human side is probably changed as well.”

Maddie nodded and went to take it out only for Daniel to shakily lean over her in order to phase it out. She nodded in thanks and he weakly motioned to the piece of metal in Vlad’s left ear and the broken manacles on his right arm and left leg. “ Mom? Can you get them off?”

She looked to the metal curiously and frowned. Blood was heavily caked around both attachments and if she didn’t know any better she’d wager his leg was….  
Her eyes shot wide and a hand went to Vlad’s left ankle fearfully. “ His ankle is broke.” He weakly stirred and a small moan echoed through the space. 

“Jack… We need to treat his injuries… With his ghost half running so low, it’ll heal incorrectly.” 

A frantic knock on the emergency room door caused all three to look up in alarm. Daniel waved his hand and the doors swung inward. Both his wife and Jaz were standing worriedly but upon seeing Daniel both sighed in relief. The relief was short lived as Sam’s eyes trailed to Vlad. “ Oh god…. Who is that...He’s-”

Daniel winced. “ I found him in an alien fighting ring. He’s a half ghost like me.”

Maddie raised an eyebrow and Jack, realizing what Daniel was doing, nodded. “Daniel found him and brought him back after he was captured. Sam? Can you go and get Tucker? We need him to pull some strings to keep the GIW from randomly stopping by to collect their supposed property.” He hissed the last word and Sam looked like she was going to vomit. Nodding, She quickly backtracked out of the room and closed the doors shut behind her with a resolute nod.

Jaz walked forward and, seeing Vlad’s features more clearly, went ashen. “That’s-”

Daniel bit his lip. “ Not the one we grew to know Jaz. This poor guy doesn’t even know we exist. His memories are complete blanks.”

Two brilliant white rings snapped them back to attention and Jack took a step back from the gurney in shock. 

They were staring at a college-age Vladimir Masters. Black hair, grown out overly long, was layered against his bloodied and stitched shoulder in sloppy tufts while his beard obscured his chin. A single strand of pure white hair was tangling against his eyelashes as he breathed in and out with the aid of the mask over his mouth. Black eyebrows furrowed weakly at the shift and a small pained gasp echoed in the room.

Daniel felt his boots dragging against the laminate as he trailed closer to look at Vlad. Maddie was staring slack-jawed. “ My god….His human side was being…”

Jack flinched. “ He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day.”

At this Maddie shook her head. “No, he’s a few years older. Not by many though. He looks like he’s twenty-four or twenty-five.”

Jaz swallowed. “ What are we going to tell him when he wakes up… Mom… Dad… If he doesn’t remember any of us… How do we explain the older Vlad Masters that was parading around for twenty years and attempted hostile takeover?”

Daniel furrowed his brow. “ No one can prove it’s him. We can take him in.”

Jack nodded and Maddie assuredly quirked her head in unison. “Of course we’re taking him in. The question is how? He has no identity now…”

Daniel swallowed. “ We can figure it out once he wakes up. If anyone brings up the fact that he looks like Vlad Masters we’ll just say that he is and the thing running around all this time was a demented GIW experiment that took on his identity.”

Jaz winced. Her eyes had trailed to the metal tub piled with paper-thin wafers and bloodied scraps of metal. “ How far is that from the truth?”

Daniel grimaced. “ It’s actually pretty close to what happened. I think they had some sort of Freakshow mind control on him for the last twenty or so years.”

Jaz frowned. “ Why did you call me?”

Daniel sighed. “ You just got your psychiatry license right?”

Jaz nodded and flinched. “ How bad is-”

Daniel flinched. “ He’s a wreck. The things that caught him out there seemed to have this sick fascination with killing sentient beings and children in front of him every time he showed deviation from orders. I had to watch them kill a kid and then torture Vlad after the fact by suffocating him.”

Jaz grimaced and her eyes flickered to Vlad worriedly. “ I’ll try my best to help him Danny but by the sounds of everything he’s going to have some serious PTSD problems.”

Daniel grimaced and his eyes flickered to Vlad only for him to pale rapidly. 

Vlad was no longer in the bed. A scream from the floor below them jostled his attention and he quickly flew into the room below in order to retrieve Vlad.   
The half-ghost was lying, somewhat gently, against the legs of a young woman. Daniel quickly darted forward and scooped him up into his arms. “ My apologies. He was attacked by a ghost earlier and his body seems to be trying to regulate its energy out.”

The young thirty-year-old blonde looked to Vlad in horror. “ His back-What happened to his back?!?”

Daniel went wide-eyed and a hand lifted Vlad up slightly only for a look or revulsion to skewer his features. Glancing back to the girl, he hissed somberly. “ I’m going to find out.”

Phasing through the ceiling and back into the room he turned to Jaz and commanded. “ Get the doctors in here.”

Maddie rushed forward and brought a hand the back of Vlad’s neck. There was a large burned mark resembling an explosion or an ectoblast to his spinal column. A deep furrow could be seen sealed over just three millimeters from the bone. 

Jack was more drawn to the large animalistic claw marks raked through his friend’s tissue. Jaz was quick to rush out of the room as Daniel laid Vlad back on the bed. Turning to the tray of chips he quickly teleported them to a safe spot in the attic at Fenton Works. He swallowed. “The story we’re sticking with is- I found him in the zone and a ghost attacked us both. He was blasted by a ghost ray and as a side effect his body has started shooting off random waves of energy.”

Maddie swallowed. “ And the truth?”

Daniel winced. “ Those chips were drawing pure core energy from Vlad’s tissue to make him a weapon… That’s probably why his ghost form seems so much slimmer now that we removed them… If they grabbed him before his powers developed it's quite possible he never learned how to manage his abilities….”

Jack grimaced and a hand went out to cradle Vladimir’s cheek tiredly. “They’re going to ask for his information as soon as we leave this room…”

Maddie rubbed her brow tiredly before trying to detach the cuffs with a screwdriver from her hazmat suit’s belt. “ We’ll put him down as Vladimir Williams. If anyone asks, we can say he’s Alicia's son until things die down.”

Doors swung wide as several doctors rushed in, some wheeling in carts and others holding various bottle and bags.

It was going to be a long night.


	9. Diagnosis For A Forgotten Soul

Having a mother with a doctor’s license and being the world’s champion defender majorly helped with clearing through any unwanted attention and navigating around unfavorable questions. The Fenton’s background in spectral anomalies and ectoplasmic science also gave them clearance to supervise and treat ecto-contamination or ghost influenced wounds on patients, things Vlad had in spades. After a few hours of extensive stitching, his arm and ankle were set and wrapped and he was wheeled into a rather large room on the fourth floor.

Daniel looked at the large space in awe and the doctor smiled sadly. “ With all of the ghost attacks we use to get Mayor Martinez diverted funds for a housing ward on the top floor of the left wing. Currently, the young man you brought in and a family the red huntress saved are the only ones recovering on this floor from ghost attacks. The walls and ceilings are coated in Fenton and Axiomware so it should be phase proof.”

Daniel sighed in relief. Vladimir had unconsciously slipped through the table while they were stitching him a total of seven times, making a few hours of work laborious and unnecessarily long. Jack wheeled the gurney as close to the bed as possible and the teen quickly flew over and phased Vlad into the new spot.  
Vlad tiredly nestled against the pillows in his sleep and the doctor sighed. “When was the last time he slept in a bed?”

Maddie loomed in the doorway. “So what's the prognosis?”

The doctor rubbed his chin and shook his head in perplexion. “ I’ve never seen this before… His wounds are already trying to heal and that’s good, but the damage prior is probably going to be irreversible. He’ll always have issues catching his breath and it’s quite possible his arms and joints will act up around extreme cold….” 

The doctor rubbed a hand through Vlad’s hair and snickered. “ The kid is lucky. Most of the wounds that healed incorrectly on him would have been a death sentence for a normal person… Whether him being in the zone for so long affected his healing or not we’ll never know… What we do know is his body is struggling desperately for nutrients… He’s malnourished to a level most would consider pine box warranting. We’ll keep him in this room until his body can sustain itself without transfusions.”

Maddie nodded. “ How many days?”

The doctor retracted a hand and pulled up the blanket against Vlad’s cheek. “His airway is open again and his pulse is hearty and strong. I give it two or three days at the earliest and then we’ll sign him out to his family.”

Jack sighed. “ That would be us.”

The doctor went wide-eyed and starred from the young man to the Fentons in shock. “You mean something dragged one of your family members off into the ghost zone and-”

Jack nodded soberly and clenched his jaw. “Yeah…”

The doctor grimaced and bowed his head apologetically. “Then there are probably a few other things regarding his condition that you’ll need to know.” There was a pause and the doctor glanced toward Vlad tiredly. “ His spine shows signs of being damaged from the inside outward, as if a small bomb or explosion flared out from the tissue. I’m not sure what ghost can do that but he most definitely has some nerve damage. We also have reason to believe his hearing is impaired on his right side.”

Daniel and his parents looked to Vlad in horror. Daniel swallowed. “ How do you know?”

The doctor sighed and bent down to where Vlad was sleeping before snapping sharply against his right ear. No movement came. Gently nudging Vlad up so he was laying straighter, he rounded to his other side and repeated the motion. Vlad stirred gently and his brow furrowed. 

Jack looked like he was capable of eating wire nails. “ So he’s deaf on one side…”

The doctor shook his head. “ We aren’t sure… His eardrum may just be ruptured in that spot and is taking more time to heal with these strange ghostly symptoms. We can’t risk sticking anything in to view it with the possibility he’ll phase and resolidify on accident again. Him dying because of brain impalement is not something we are willing to risk.”

Jack grimaced. “ Anything else?”

The doctor winced. “ How old is he?”

Daniel bit his lip. “Twenty-five.”

The doctor furrowed his brow. “ From the x-rays we took, his teeth are underdeveloped. The wisdom set hasn't even broken through the gum line yet.”

Daniel flinched and his eyes became downcast. His voice shook slightly. “ Did anything else show up?”

The elderly man furrowed his brow debatingly and looked to Vlad in confusion. “Has he had brain surgery? The scarring in the skull coincides with a craniotomy but its location is bizarre… We were curious as to if he’s had any head trauma or tumors in the past.”

Maddie guardedly bit her cheek before lying. “ His mother lives out of state… Spittoon doesn’t have any actual cell towers so I can’t ask her if he has… Maybe if I knew the year I could ask another family member…”

The doctor nodded and brought a hand to the back of Vlad’s neck as gently as possible. “ I’d say it's nearly as old as he is…. Whoever performed such an operation must have been completely insane. The location is so close to his spinal column its bordering on…” He paused. “ On second thought? It almost looks more like deep brain stimulation but as to why a person would perform such a dangerous treatment on a child is beyond me…”

Maddie pursed her lips and her brow furrowed. “ Is there any way of knowing for sure exactly what was placed?”

The doctor shook his head tiredly, “ Unless his ecto-contamination clears up sufficiently we won’t be able to test him with the MRI or CT machines. The energy coming off him already blurred the majority of the x-rays we took… And from what we learned last year when Phantom got knocked out, ghost energy doesn’t fare well against electromagnetic pulses. It can end up putting him into a coma if we try it prematurely.”

‘ So we can’t figure out what those bastards did to him yet.’

Maddie sat down at the foot of Vlad’s bed. “ Is that all?”

The doctor nodded apologetically. “ We’re very much at a loss with what’s not going to heal and what’s going to recover fully. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything else.”

The doctor began trailing toward the door and a kind smile lit his face. “ The kid’s a fighter. I believe he’ll be perfectly fine provided he has a loving arm to lean on and a strong support system.”

The doctor went to turn and paused. His eyes trailed back somewhat confused, “ Do I even want to know why my nurses and staff were whispering about aliens in the elevator?”

Daniel bowed his head apologetically. “ The ghost attack we had was just part of it. The portal opened up and we landed on some far off planet. The beings there wanted to make money bets on which ‘human’ would win in a death brawl but weren't expecting one of the said humans to shift into a flying, laser shooting humanoid.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow but, seeing Daniel’s fatigue, he quickly decided that further questioning would only add the day's stress level. Walking out, he grasped the handle to the door tiredly and finished. “ The call button is on the left of the bed. If he has any problems tonight let us know and we’ll work with you accordingly. There are two fold out beds stowed in the couches by the window. A nurse will check on him tomorrow morning.” A hand briefly waved and then the door shut with a muted clack.

Maddie’s eyes trailed up to her son expectantly. “ You know what happened to his teeth don’t you?”

Daniel winced and averted his gaze to the windows. A gloved hand rubbed his arm tiredly before squeezing. “ They knocked them out so he wouldn’t be able to speak...His owner apparently didn’t like having a dog that barked as much as it bit.”

Maddie winced and her hand gently pulled the blankets up so that Vladimir’s ankle and arm were more comfortably nestled in the thick comforters. 

Vlad’s nose twitched and she smiled. “ Hey, Jack? Do you think he still snores like he did in college?”

Daniel’s father snorted and rubbed his eyes. “ Baby? I snore...Vladdie purred.”

Daniel did a double take. “ He purrs?”

Maddie snickered and a hand rubbed a small circle against Vlad’s gauze covered right palm. “ Don’t let your father trick you like that Danny… Vladimir snores. Granted, it's really light and sounds like-”

“Purring.” Jack finished flatly. 

The large man tiredly sat on Vlad’s other side and tousled his hair lightly. Vlad smiled and his body momentarily phased before regaining solidity, this time with his right hand languidly propped next to his cheek. 

A small sound soon filled the space and Daniel had to restrain himself from laughing. “That’s just a-dorkable.”

Maddie smiled. “ He fell asleep in my dorm during a study session when we were in our sophomore year while Jack went to pick up a pizza. Before your father returned, I cut off the radio and laid him out against the couch. Five minutes passed and he was snoring exactly like this.”

Jack smirked at Vlad’s peaceful expression and snickered. “ Gosh… We’re going to have to give him a shave and a haircut.”

Daniel smiled. “ I think he looks pretty good with the beard.”

Maddie nodded. “ Definitely an improvement over the goatee…”

They all fell into pained silence.

Daniel broke it after a few moments. “ How are we going to break it to him?”

Maddie flinched and her hand went to Vlad’s hair soothingly. “ What’s there to say? That wasn’t him. Now that we know he was experimented on and something was either taken or jammed into his skull, a lot of his insane and uncharacteristic tendencies suddenly become explainable.”

Jack nodded. “ Vlad would have never done that stuff… He was my brother for three years before college… My grandpapi raised us together after Vladimir’s mother died. He was a saint. He even volunteered for the Peace Corps the spring before we tested the portal…. That’s part of the reason it was so hard for me to leave him up-”

Jack looked like he was going to vomit. “ I left him...He needed me and I left him floating on a lifeless rock.”

Maddie’s arm latched out to his shoulder. “ You didn’t know, Jack.”

Jack’s lip trembled. “ I should have.”

Daniel winced and after a moment of tense silence, his brow furrowed in perplexion. “Vlad joined the Peace Corps in college?”

Jack and Maddie both exchanged a look with one another. “ Danny… Vladimir was studying to be a doctor.”

That information nearly sent Daniel’s last struggling brain cell into a dead halt. Flopping onto the foot of the bed, he swallowed. “ I’m going to arrange things with Sam so that I can stay with you guys for the first three or four weeks… Is that alright?”

Maddie smirked. “ You leave the nest for only three months and you’re already clambering to come back? We haven't even packed all of your stuff out of the garage yet!” She teased and a bright bubbly laugh filled the space with a much-needed change in atmosphere.

Jack smirked. “ At least Jaz’s room is cleared out. We’ll need to make the space livable for Vladimir considering he’s practically your age, Danny.”

Daniel froze. “ Holy shit...We don’t know his actual age and I’m twenty-two...That means he’s only one or two years older than me…”

Vlad attempted turning onto his right side and Jack reached over to help him. Daniel’s amazement and slight illation quickly turned to dread. “ He thinks it’s 1993...Mom… Dad…. How is he going to take the knowledge he was ripped forward like this? He hasn’t aged and you both are about to have your twenty-second anniversary this May…”

Maddie flenched. “ We’ll tell him the truth. He was blasted by a portal and the GIW took him before we could get to him. They made an evil half ghost hybrid that tried world domination and when their plan failed they scraped everything, including him, and chunked him out into space during the aftermath.”

Daniel winced. “ Easier said than done. Mom? He’s genuinely terrified. Imagine waking up and someone tells you twenty years passed…”

Jack sighed. “ We don’t have a choice. If we lie to him he’ll just become withdrawn and skittish.”

Something warm nudged next to Maddie’s leg and she looked down curiously to see a bandaged wrist weakly hugging against her. She was going to move him with Jack’s help but quickly decided against it as her amethyst eyes trailed to the two trails of water snaking down Vladimir's fatigued features. Her eyes softened and a gloved palm gently wiped the water away. Turning to Jack, she frowned. “ I think he needs the warmth tonight. Maybe we should request a heated pillow or-”

Daniel sighed. “ I don’t think that’s going to soothe him the same. He hasn’t been in physical contact with something warm and living that hasn’t tried to maim him in over three years.”

Maddie frowned and her brow furrowed worriedly. “ I’m afraid if we sleep up here with him we may accidentally agitate his arm or ankle and considering his powers are glitching….”

Daniel smiled and phased his mother out of Vlad’s hold. “ I’ll sleep next to him. If he phases, my body will regulate the two of us.”

Shifting to human form and slipping off his dress shoes, Daniel Fenton sighed and leaned into the mattress. “ Besides? I could really use some sleep on a bed after that entire ordeal.”

Laying back next to Vladimir, and being careful not to agitate the other half ghost’s IV, Daniel sleepily pulled the other’s right wrist into his hand and interlocked his palm with his.

Vlad tightened the hold and leaned in against him before mumbling in his sleep, _“ Badger…It hurts….”_

Maddie and Jack both raised eyebrows from where they were folding out the couch on the far left. “ Danny? What did he say?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “ He called me badger and said he was hurting.”

Jack dropped the cushion he was holding onto the bed and his eyes clenched shut painfully before he elaborated for the two of them. “ He thinks you’re me, Danny. When his mom died we came up with these stupid nicknames in high school. I kept badgering him to confide or to get out of the house and eventually he just started calling me Badger. I named him after a Scooby Doo character named Van Ghoul but I got sick of using the full nickname and eventually, it became V-man...”

Daniel’s gaze sombered and he whispered in ghost speak, _“ V-man? You’re going to be alright.”_

Vlad’s face calmed and, after a few moments, a bleary reply was made. _“Thank you…”_


	10. Phone Home

Warm… Vlad Masters was warm for the first time in years. Eyelids fluttered weakly and he felt tears brimming on his face. The body beside him seemed to note his tears and a limb gently settled near his shoulder blades before pulling him closer. 

“ I think he’s having another nightmare.” That sounded like Phantom… How strange that a ghost would have heat. 

Vlad curled slightly further against his heater at the feeling of the slight withdrawal Phantom made to examine him. Anything was better than being suspended in the air in an arena pit until limbs went numb from being stretched out of socket by his restraints. 

The softer female voice from the day before appeared on his left side, “If he doesn’t wake up soon we’re going to have to request that Dr. Blaise begin an intravenous feeding tube to keep his strength up.”

Phantom seemed to sigh against him and Vlad tiredly tugged. The woman from before was now carding a hand through his hair in small soothing circles.  
“Has Tucker made it to where they can’t snatch him again?”

Vlad winced and his grip tightened weakly around the fabric balled in his hands. ‘This Tucker person would have to be a pretty powerful figure to stop a small planet of intergalactic pirates.’

There was a small shake from Phantom. “Yeah, he pulled some strings and Sam got in contact with several senators. They all have put him under the human hybrid banner with me so all laws pertaining to me are now protecting him as well. He’s now UN protected like Dani and Val.”

There was a sigh of relief. Vlad felt his stomach flutter at the sound of people caring for his well being. Care was foreign, a dream-like illusion his brain grappled with on late nights when his owner neglected to feed him for not drawing out his fights for showman’s appeal.

There was a click somewhere on his right and he nuzzled weakly against the warmth Phantom was being so gracious to provide as he began drifting off again. The Vladimir Masters prior to the portal accident would have laughed at the idea of snuggling against a complete stranger like a small child.  
The act should have been humiliating but instead, it was quickly becoming a desperate need. He needed this to feel grounded to reality...To have a tether. So what if his tether was a kid a few years younger than himself? 

A voice broke him out of his ponderings. It was jolly and full, almost comparing to the mirth Jack had and the heavy worn vibrato of Mr. Fenton. “How is he holding up?”

The female… She was the doctor from yesterday. ‘ What was her name?... Oh, that’s right. Dr. Fenton.’ “We think he’s still having nightmares. Jack? Did you-”  
Vlad felt his brow furrowing and his eyes attempted opening, “J-Jack? ”

There was a gasp from somewhere on his right and Phantom’s warmth disappeared to be replaced by an orange blur with a familiar girth. Tears welled and Vlad sobbed freely as he was lifted up and leaned against the larger male’s shoulder. His voice hurt and felt ill-used from years of speaking a forced dialect and screaming but he attempted to speak to the tear-stained blur desperately. “ P-Portal...Jack it didn’t work….-threw me onto a space rock…”

The hands tightened and Vlad nestled is head against the other’s chest beseechingly. “I-I’m sorry we argued...I’m sorry….The last thing I said was so mean….I-”

Jack was patting his back and his voice cracked. “ V-man...It’s alright. You’re safe… I know you didn’t mean it bud. Shhh…” A hand rubbed against his spine and Vlad relaxed so that only a few small hiccups between broken sobs could escape, muffled against Jack’s hazmat suit. A smaller hand trailed to his shoulder and rubbed soothingly. Two rings formed at his waist and Vlad stiffened fearfully before trying to back out of Jack’s hold. He knew what the rings signified and he was adept to fear them...to fear the blue skin and pain racked flesh that had kept him alive in the void. Jack and Maddie had always shown displeasure with ghosts. They hated them and if he suddenly shifted into that being he felt no amount of pleading would earn back their affections. He wanted their help in maybe curing it...finding a way to reverse it, but after all of the horrific treatment given to him in the arena, he was beginning to second guess himself.

Would he even still be considered human? Had the doctor and Phantom told them about his other half?

Pushing away from Jack with his broken arm and, phasing backward through the bedding as the rings parted, he tearfully looked at his hands and crawled to the small corner near the IV drip beside the bed. Turning invisible, he shivered fearfully. _“He’ll hate me….He’ll hate me if he sees….Oh god….I’m a monster…”_

There was a tense silence as Vlad tried his hardest to keep himself concealed. Something warm wrapped around him and he cried out fearfully only for Phantom to soothe. “They know Vlad… They still care about you. You’re not a monster and we’ll never hate you for something you can’t control.”

Vlad froze up and red tearing eyes snapped open. A black-haired young man with blue eyes was holding him tightly and rocking him gently against himself. “D-Daniel…? You’re-”

Daniel retracted and smiled gently. “ I told you I was like you.”

Vlad glanced toward his arm and seeing paled human skin he began hyperventilating. A large, black glove wrapped around the undamaged limb hanging limply over Daniel’s shoulder and squeezed. 

“ Vladdie. I love you bud. Ghost half or not.”

Glowing eyes flickered upward and he froze. Jack looked so much older. The youthful fullness in his cheeks had started fading and white could be seen growing out near his ears. “J-Jack?” His voice shattered and a sob echoed in his words. “ Jack, what happened….Why are you so much older...I- What’s happening to me?”  
Daniel rubbed his back as Maddie leaned in and brought a hand to his face. He clenched his eyes shut to keep his tears from completely soaking the fabric on Daniel’s shoulder. “ D-Dr. Fenton? How long-How long was I asleep?”

Maddie flinched and lifted his head to meet her gaze. “ Vladimir? Don’t you recognize me yet?”

Red eyes opened and his throat caught. A head shook weakly and he clenched his eyes shut again as the tears became all the more violent. “No...NO…...This can’t be….”

Maddie leaned in and connected her head to his. “ You scared us.”

Vlad weakly gripped Jack’s hand and squeezed. _“ They aged….They all grew old….Why am I still-”_ He felt arms tighten around him and his voice became all the more panicked. _“ I-I haven’t seen m-myself…. Am I like t-them?”_

Maddie retracted herself and Jack attempted to detangle his hand only for Vlad’s grip to tighten desperately. _“ No...Please...Don’t leave. I’m sorry.”_

Daniel gently brought a hand behind Vlad’s neck to tilt him back and phased him from his father. “ Vlad? They’re not leaving you. We just need to get you back in bed. You’re hurt really bad right now and this floor isn’t doing anything for your ankle.”

Vlad paused and after a moment he felt hands hefting him up and carrying him back to the bed. _“ You’re their son….Danny, I’m sorry I-”_

Daniel smiled and set Vlad down on top of the covers. The white-haired, red-eyed half ghost looked to the dark-haired man in front of him with utter grief and loss. More than two decades must have passed while he was away and yet it had only felt like one or two years. 

Years of his life had been wasted and made irremediable.

Jack came to his side with a box of kleenex and patted him gently. Maddie could be heard sighing. “ And you just had to go and phase out your IV…”

Vlad was taken aback by the casualness of this and raised his head to peer at her owlishly. She was smiling at him with genuine warmth. A hand reached to his head and tousled his hair like one would a small child. 

“ M-Maddie...J-Jack...You’re so old now…”

Maddie raised an eyebrow. “ I’m not even fifty yet, buster. Don’t go calling me old.”

Jack snickered. “ V? Don’t go antagonizing the old ball and chain. She’s become more ornery over the years.”

Vlad paused and after a moment a small laugh echoed in the space. “ You really did it. You married her.”

Jack smiled warmly and gathered the smaller man into his arms in a gentle embrace. “I’m so glad you’re back.” A weight seemed to echo in his voice and Vlad sensed a double meaning but was two confused emotionally to question it. 

The red-eyed halfa tightened his grip with his one good arm around Jack’s middle. “I’m glad to be back.”

Jack patted him affectionately and Maddie sat down at the bottom of the bed with a smirk. “ So how long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

Vlad winced and he curled up slightly further against Jack. Afraid to directly tell his friends how long he had gone without food, he whispered in ghost undertones to no one in particular. _“...I lost track…”_

A snap from something nearby caused Vlad to look up abruptly. Daniel had a strange flat glass object in his palm and had apparently cracked it in his hands. Vlad went wide-eyed. _“Are you alright? I heard something crack...”_

Daniel frowned and looked to Vlad remorsefully. _“ Vlad? Are **you** alright?” _

Vlad bit his lip and refused to answer, instead, glancing toward Daniel’s hands with worry. _“What is that thing? Is it a mirror or-”_

Daniel looked from Vlad to the iPhone in his hand with realization. Looking back up to Vlad he smiled slyly. _“It’s a phone.”_

That got a rather livid response. Vlad’s red eyes gleamed curiously and he eyed the device like it was an exotic animal. After a moment, he looked back up to Daniel and raised an eyebrow. _“ You’re totally bluffing.”_

Daniel snickered. _“ Tell you what? I’ll let you mess around with it **if** you tell me what you want to eat...”_

Vlad looked unsure but it was obvious his curiosity was biting at him. _“ Are you some sort of gang leader or a lawyer? And how is it so thin? All of the ones I saw in Madison were brick sized and that thing is-”_ A hand motioned toward it. _“ I call bullshit.”_

Daniel raised an eyebrow at the language and his smile grew slightly larger. _“Times have changed Vladdie. This is called an iPhone and with it, I can connect to the internet, play games, film videos, and message people.”_

Vlad started from Daniel to Jack in confusion and his voice cracked between tones as if he was unaccustomed to speaking out of form. “ Jack? _He_ says _that’s a_ phone. I’m confused. _He’s_ lying, right?”

Both Maddie and Jack exchanged a worried expression before Jack nodded. “Yep bud, that’s a phone.”

Maddie sat down on his other side and brought a hand to his shoulder. “Vladimir? Do you have issues speaking English? You accidentally switched to ghost speak when talking with us.”

Vlad furrowed his brow and bit his lip. “ I spoke something else? I _thought_ I was just whispering.”


	11. An Offer

Daniel frowned and sat at the foot of the bed. “Vlad? Can you shift back? I want to see something.”

Vlad furrowed his brow. _“ Shift back? Daniel….What do you mean shift?”_

Daniel transformed into Phantom in front of Vlad and motioned toward the rings parting at his waist. Vlad watched, awestruck, as the white rippled and morphed around the younger man before gasping. _“ H-How did you do that?!”_

Daniel shifted back to Fenton and sighed heavily. _“ You don’t know how to change forms, Vlad?”_

Vlad shook his head vigorously. _“ We have a choice?! I thought it was a forced occurrence! You mean we can fucking choose to be one or the other instead of one side forcefully taking over against our will?!”_ Vlad cringed at the way he sounded and apologized. _“Sorry for the language... I-”_

Daniel raised an eyebrow and switched to English so that his parents would have some clue as to what was going on. “ Don’t be. You have every right to curse considering those monsters were throwing you around against random gladiators in deathmatches when you can’t even differentiate your forms on your own or-”

Daniel paled. “ Vlad? Do you know how to fly or how to duplicate?”

Vlad stiffened and his voice tried to shift to English, “ _F_ ly?!”

Daniel could only stare at him in awe. “ You were just fighting with ectoblasts?!”

_“ You mean those random pink disco lights that kept shooting out of my hands?! I thought that was the only thing the blue-skinned segment could do! That and the occasional bit of strength or invisibility when I got cornered. You mean we can do other things?!”_ Vlad struggled slightly in Jack’s hold and his friend moved him so that he was leaning against his shoulder. Eyes went wide. “ Holy _shit_. I fell _through the bed_ earlier, didn’t I?!”  
Daniel looked to Vlad as if he had grown an extra head. “ You’re like when I first got my powers…”

An evil smirk on par with Dark Phantom ghosted across the twenty-two-year-old’s lips. 

Vlad shivered. “ J- _J_ ack? _W_ hy is he _looking_ at me like t-that?”

Jack raised an eyebrow and Daniel’s eyes glinted mischievously. He had memorized Vlad’s words years ago and now was the time to throw him into the same situation he had been in starting out. His voice became kind and endearing as he addressed the halfa nestled next to his parents. _“ You don’t have to stumble through this alone.”_

Vlad’s eyes went wide and Daniel continued. _“It’s a desperate struggle trying to control it isn’t it?”_

Vlad nodded. “ I keep _hurting_ myself. Are you _saying_ you can help make it _stop_?”

Daniel shook his head no. _“ There’s no way to make it stop. You’re fused at a molecular level with ectoplasm. The only way to gain normalcy it to learn to manage and control your powers.”_

Vlad frowned. “ Po _w_ ers?”

Daniel smirked and a duplicate quickly split off from his form before creating ice in his palm and tossing it to the original. _“ Yep Vladdie. Powers. Powers, by the way, that I've had from the time I was fourteen. I have experience, and a reputation as one of the most powerful ectoplasmic beings on earth. I could train you, teach you everything I know, and all you'd have to do is team up with me. Think of it as superhero training.”_

Vlad looked from one Daniel to the other in awe. Glancing at the deathly paler in his skin and feeling the lack of warmth in his flesh, he looked up to Daniel pleadingly and spoke slowly to make sure he was using English. “Anything...Please...I can’t feel my heart and I’m scared.”

Daniel nodded and dissipated the duplicate. “ Okay, Vlad. Now I want you to imagine a hula hoop around your waist. A buzzing energetic hula hoop of light.”  
Vlad took a breath and closed his eyes as he focused on Daniel’s voice. 

“ Now what ?”

Daniel smirked at the bright white rings forming around Vlad’s waist. “Imagine them splitting out from your middle and spreading weight and warmth to your body.”

Vlad nodded and concentrated on the feel of weight. A tingle ran up his spine and he gasped out as static spread from his waist and throughout his body until it reached his toes and his tousled black hair. Blue eyes opened worriedly and he looked at his fingers in awe. “That’s soooooo weird.”

Daniel chuckled. _“ It’s nice being in the driver's seat, huh?”_

Vlad nodded. “ Very. How did you know that was going to work?”

Daniel sighed in relief. ‘ His ghost speak is only forcing itself when he’s nervous, scared, or in ghost form. As long as he’s calm mom and dad should be able to understand him now without me teleporting the ghost gabber into the hospital’s lost and found.’


	12. Selfies and Burgers

Daniel frowned slightly and rubbed the back of his neck as he mulled over Vlad’s question. “ There’s a girl like us. She was taught by another half ghost that masqueraded as her father. She’s told me stories of how he trained her and her siblings.”

Vlad stiffened. “ You mean there are others like us?”

Daniel winced. “ No anymore. Her siblings all died. She almost did as well when her father tried melting her down to study how she was able to function for so long when all of her brothers had died soon after being born. He died not too long after when he tried taking over the world.”

Vlad bristled and grimaced in disgust. “ You mean he tried murdering his own kid?! And what’s this about some crazy bastard taking over the world? Couldn’t they have like shot him or-”

Daniel felt his face paling rapidly. Maddie and Jack both cringed in unison. If someone would have shot Vladimir they most assuredly would never have found out the truth regarding just what had changed him after the portal had malfunctioned.

Vlad wasn’t done ranting. “ Is she okay?!”

Jack answered this one. “ She’s attending school in town and living with a close friend of the family. She’ll be turning seventeen this April.”

Vlad sighed in relief. Eyes flickered to Maddie and Jack curiously. “ Are you two alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Jack grimaced and looked at Daniel for guidance. Daniel sighed. “ You have a ton of stuff to catch up on Vlad but I think you need to regain some strength first. My offer still stands for the phone. Tell me what you want to eat and you can play some of the games I have on it.” 

Vlad bit his lip. “ I actually don’t know what I want….I haven’t-” His eyes grew dark and far away. 

Jack frowned but came to a sudden realization. “ How about a burger, V-man?”

Vlad looked up startled but his eyes quickly lit up from being in proximity to Jack’s mirth laden smile. Maddie gently prodded him. “ It’s not every day a superhero offers to get you food, Vladimir. What do you want to eat? Jack offered a burger but you have options.”

Vlad blushed and his ears tinted red as he stared into his lap. Ghost speak permeated the air due to his apprehension. _“ A burger… Do they still taste the same? Twenty years must have passed if Daniel’s age is any indicator and I don’t-”_

Daniel smiled. “ They still taste the same. I know a place that sells a really good burger. Do you want the works?”

Vlad raised an eyebrow curiously, “ The works?”

Daniel smirked, “ A double patty, ketchup, pickles, lettuce, mustard, tomato, red onion, and American cheese slammed between two sesame seed buns, with a side of fries and a coke…”

Vlad’s eyes glinted red and small fangs extended as his stomach rumbled. A deeper blush burned under his cheeks as Daniel, Maddie, and Jack laughed. Vlad covered his face shamefully. A teasingly light hand went his shoulder. “ I take it that’s what you want?”

Vlad nodded and looked up pleadingly. “ Yes...Please?”

Daniel nodded. “ I’ll go and get you a burger then. Here.”

The phone was tossed into Vlad’s lap and his eyes shot up to Daniel’s in bewilderment. Daniel smirked. “ I keep my promises. The passcode is 2343.”

Vlad poked the device somewhat fearfully and Maddie giggled. “ Like this Vladimir.”

A finger pressed to the round button on the bottom of the flat glass surface and a bright light flickered on. Vlad’s jaw dropped. ‘ It’s a lightbulb. A bright, picture-laden light bulb!’

“ Jack! Look! It glows!” A finger brushed against the cracked screen by accident as he marveled at the thin device and a keypad appeared. 

Vlad couldn’t contain his excitement as he looked up to Jack and Maddie as if asking if what he was seeing was real or not. He looked for all intents and purposes like a little boy who had just discovered a new toy. Both Jack and Maddie smiled encouragingly and Vlad shifted his right arm to stroke the screen. There was a bright flash and he winced before looking up to Daniel’s laughing features. 

_“ What was that?!”_

Daniel smirked. “ You took a picture of yourself, Fruit Loop.” Grabbing the phone off of the bed, Daniel keyed in the code and opened one of the gaming apps. “You like video games, right?”

Vlad swallowed and nodded sheepishly. “ Yeah… But how does that little device-”

Daniel shrugged. “ I’m no expert so I can’t actually answer that one.”

A finger swiped up to cut the device on airplane mode so that Vlad wouldn’t search up anything that would panic him before they could explain everything. Satisfied Vlad wouldn’t have any issues with the device, he handed it back and motioned with his fingers to a few brightly colored squares. “ This is a matching game. You swipe the colors in repetitive patterns to earn points. See?” A digit expertly swished across the glass and several blue squares connected. The device chirped, “ Sweet combo!” before flashing a number in the middle of the screen. 

Vlad looked fearful of damaging the device and Daniel smirked before grabbing the other halfa’s hand and sliding it across the glass. This time the phone praised, ‘Double strike!’ and flashed a bright green ‘ 400’ over the screen. 

Vlad’s eyes lit up and he swiped a finger again before smiling. 

Daniel nodded to his parents and quickly walked out of the room and into the hallway to reach the elevator. With the walls reinforced with ghost proof material, phasing would have been to strenuous. Clicking the button, he hummed absently as the lift began its descent.


	13. A Clean Slate

Back in the room, Vlad was curled up between Jack and Maddie and questioning about everything and anything related to the outside world. 

Vlad pouted comically as Jack nudged him. “ Bud? I was joking. The Packers are still around.”

Vlad glared. “ That was totally bogus! Don’t scare me like that!”

Maddie teasingly snatched the phone from Vlad while he was distracted by Jack and skillfully finished a level. “ Beat that Masters.”

Vlad looked to the number and his tongue poked out in concentration as he grabbed the device back and quickly nudged the squares in a seemingly random motion to beat her score. Three green and five red merged and a bomb icon flashed on the screen. Vlad looked at it confusedly. “ This thing isn’t going to blow up abruptly, right?”

Maddie raised an eyebrow and peaked over his shoulder again. Seeing the flashing icon, she laughed. “ No, it won’t suddenly explode. You got a boost item. You swirl your finger and it blows up the nearest rows and adds their value to your points.”

Vlad nodded and a somewhat timidly did as she instructed. A bright boom showed on the screen and 1,200 points were added to Vlad’s score. He grinned and looked to Maddie in a way that could only be described as a sibling teasing another sibling. “ Beat that Doctor.”

Jack snorted and patted Vlad’s shoulder. “ Hey, bud? Let’s get that mess on your face taken care of, hmm?”

Vlad blinked up from the screen and his eyebrows furrowed. “ What mess?” He swiped a hand to his face and realized with dread. ‘ I forgot about that….’

He nodded frantically. “ Can we? I don’t like having it and I want to see what I look like….”

Maddie and Jack both bottled their apprehension. Maddie took the phone out of Vlad’s hands before leaning an arm down to help support him as Jack stood. 

Jack smiled encouragingly, “ You don’t have to worry about your looks V-man. I think you’ve fared far better in that department than either of us.”

Vlad winced. “ How so?”

Maddie sighed. “ I think you need to see that for yourself, Vladimir.”

Jack smiled, “ After we get rid of your beard. Your lucky this room comes fully stocked. I found the razor earlier this morning in the bathroom.”

This, of course, begged a new question from Vlad as he was hefted up into Jack’s arms. “ I noticed I’m no longer covered in dirt… Did the staff clean me off or-”

Jack nodded. “ We had to in order to stitch your back. The risk of infection was too high otherwise.”

‘We?’ Vlad blushed bright fuschia and ducked his head shamefully. 

Maddie raised an eyebrow at the odd behavior. “ What so wrong about us bathing you?”

Vladimir bit his lip. “ Nothing really… It’s just no one besides my mother has ever seen me in my birthday suit and it's rather strange to think about a room full of people, including someone I used to have a crush on, ogling me.” He paused and his eyes darkened again. “Wait… I need to retract that statement. There was an incident a few months ago where my owner wanted to show me my place and-” He shuttered and ghost undertones quickly took over between syllables. “ they stripped _me_ down and I couldn’t see _anything_ … _Someone was_ touching me…”

He shook his head and tears tried to form in his eyes as he looked to Jack. “ It doesn’t count, right? It _was_ the other form...the blue _one and_ it doesn’t even look _the_ same now…”

Maddie and Jack looked downright murderous. Jack tightened his hold. “Buddy? Did they-”

Vlad shook his head weakly and leveled his voice as well as he could through his momentary flashback episode. “ My owner never let anyone get that far… Something about not wanting his property defiled.”

Jack swallowed. “ It doesn’t count V-man.”

Vlad seemed reassured and looked on apprehensively as they stepped into the bathroom. Maddie was blocking his view of the mirror with her lithe frame and Jack was purposefully keeping his shoulders turned as he scooted into the room so that Vlad would be unable to look. Jack sat him on the toilet while Maddie came up behind him and draped a towel over his shoulders.

Vlad swallowed nervously at the sight of the razor. Locking his gaze with Jack, he somewhat pleadingly requested, “Just promise me you won't give me a mustache or a goatee. I would never be able to look at myself without cringing.”

Maddie and Jack both shared a mixed expression before grinning broadly.

“Agreed.”

“ Yeah, a goatee is a definite no.”

Vlad smiled as his chin was tilted and a cold frothing solution was smeared onto his face. Soon, the sounds of a sink nearby being cut on and the cheap dollar store razor being knocked to dislodge the hair could be heard. Vlad kept stock still as Jack tilted him and swiped off the growth on his chin with a gentle flicking motion. Vlad laughed slightly and Jack retracted the razor questioningly, “ What’s so funny?”

Vlad opened his eyes. “ I feel I should also add that I don’t want a bald spot on my chin to match the one popping up on your head, Badger.”

Jack went wide-eyed and then looked away from Vlad to knock out the razor. A broad smile snaked across his lips as he returned. “ Don’t tempt me.”

Vlad in retaliation clumsily scooped a small bit of the shaving cream and splattered it against Jack’s cheek. Jack laughed and Maddie grabbed Vlad’s wrist to keep him immobile as the larger man made another swipe near Vlad’s jawline. Vlad relaxed in their hold and closed his eyes as Jack worked and Maddie hummed. His nose crinkled slightly once the razor brushed above his lip. Jack was extremely careful to avoid nicking or cutting the sensitive flesh with the cheap cutting implement but was having issues navigating the scar ripped though Vlad’s top lip. After ten or so minutes they finished and Jack proudly set the razor down before grabbing a nearby towel and cleaning Vlad’s face of excess shaving cream. Vlad groaned and sleepily shifted. Maddie laughed. “ Did you seriously fall asleep on us?”

Vlad yawned and apologetically countered. “ Sorry...M’ not used to being handled like this and I guess I zoned out.”


	14. Lost Property

Jack smiled gently and his hand looped under Vlad’s right shoulder to lift him up. Maddie covered his eyes with her hands. Vlad startled slightly. “ Hey! What are you two-”

His question was answered before he could finish, the last syllables dying in the lump in his throat as Maddie removed her hands. Blue eyes stared into the mirror in confusion. Sure, there was a scar running through his lip and his arms from under the medical gown seemed to be covered in burn marks and long healed flesh, but he looked like he hadn’t progressed at all. He was still college-aged. He was literally a man out of time. This realization gave him relief and sadness. He hadn’t missed living his life, if anything it looked like he had simply been set on pause in the VCR and someone had just now clicked play to start the tape again. Maddie and Jack however….

Vlad felt tears welling in his eyes. His friends were two decades older than him now. Maddie’s palm went to his face and directed him away from the mirror. “ It’s alright Vladimir.”

Vlad shook his head against her palm. _“ You both aged and I got stuck….My best friends are older than me by more than two decades….”_

Maddie couldn’t understand the ghost dialect, it was set at a frequency humans could barely hear in close proximity but that ghosts could hear from vast distances. The emotions, however, were clue enough. He was looking and reacting at her changes, not his own.

Jack scooped up Vlad’s legs and nestled him against his shoulder as they exited the room. “ Bud? From here on out you’ll be staying with us. You have another day or so in this hospital and then we’re moving you to our house. Even if we seem older we’re still your friends. Age isn’t going to change that.”

Vlad hugged his right arm against Jack and swallowed before forcing himself to calm enough for English, “ How am I like this? Did I stop aging or did the portal zap me into the future? I should have some signs of growing older…”

Jack sighed and Maddie shared a somber look with him. “ We don’t really know...Vladimir? You need to recover first and then we’ll look for the answers together.”

Jack nodded and gently set Vlad on the bed. “What Mads said. You need to get a warm meal and some more rest at the moment, not stress on the unknowns.”

Vlad smiled weakly and leaned back in the bed so that his back was resting against the plastic headboard. “Yeah…”

Maddie saw his expression and quickly opened another app on Daniel’s phone for Vlad to mess around with. Leaning in next to him she nudged the phone in front of his nose and prodded. “You were doing pretty good with the other game so how about a little Fruit Ninja?”

Vlad raised an eyebrow and a small smile formed on his features again. “How do we play?”

Maddie swiped her finger at the screen. “ You move your finger in a little slicing movement across the glass to cut the fruit while avoiding the bombs. If you hit a bomb it’s game over.” She sliced through several fruits and then quirked her finger to the first bomb to show him what would happen. “ See?”

Vlad nodded and took the device from her hands gingerly as she handed it to him. Maddie turned to Jack and sighed. “ Daniel should be back by now…”

Jack nodded. “ It’s been an hour… Maybe he got caught up catching some ghost?”

Maddie frowned. A large booming sound shook the hospital and Vlad turned invisible out of instinct. _“ What was that!?”_

Maddie and Jack both exchanged worried expression before Maddie slipped on her goggles. An intercom cut on in the room. “ We ask that all patients stay in their rooms. The blast isn't in the immediate area of the facility and our ghost shields have been activated. Ghost threat level: 6.”

Jack raised an eyebrow and Maddie relaxed slightly. “ Well, that explains the hold up on the food.”

Jack turned to Vladimir and nudged the invisible indention in the bed gently. “ It’s okay, it’s just a tremor from a ghost attack a ways out from the hospital. We’re safe here.”

Vlad slowly returned to visibility. _“You mean a ghost shook the entire hospital?”_

Seeing Vladimir was still panicking, Maddie gently reached over. “ It’s nothing to worry about Vladimir. Danny has it covered.”

Vlad took a deep breath to calm himself and was about to say something else when the intercom clicked on again. “ Maddie and Jack Fenton? Can you please report to the front kiosk by the security station? Thank you.”

Both looked unsettled at the thought of leaving Vladimir in the room. Vlad flinched and smiled, in what he hoped was a comforting motion. “ Go ahead, guys. I’m not going to go anywhere. I’ll figure out this game by the time you get back…”

Maddie smiled and Jack nodded before both of them hurried out of the room. 

Vlad settled slightly against the bedding and grabbed the phone again. ‘Okay, so bananas slow the other fruits and cutting more than one per swipe gives me extra points.’ A finger swiped one of the frozen blue bananas and Vlad felt himself calming as he played. It was almost therapeutic. A few minutes into the game he heard the door click and smiled at the screen. “ Jack? I think I figured it out.” 

Eyes trailed upward when no response came and Vlad stiffened at the large white-suited males. There were two of them at the door and each was looking at him with slight confusion. 

“ Vladimir Masters?”

Vlad swallowed. “ Are you two doctors?”

The larger one was pulling something out from his jacket pocket. 

Vlad felt himself tightening his grip on the phone as the gun was pointed toward him.


	15. Retrieval

He shivered and tears began tracing down his jaw. “What do y-you want?”

The other was pulling out another device and frowning. “ None of the control relays are showing up. I think it reverted when we tanked the program.”

Vlad didn’t like the sound of that… Not one sugar cookie coated bit.

The other was leveling the barrel toward the bed. “ We need to hurry this along before they come back up.”

Vlad’s pulse was now drumming against his chest desperately and he felt the phone falling out of his hands as the gun fired. A thick, silver dart embedded in his shoulder and he cried out in agony. 

Blue eyes flashed red and he flopped fearfully from the bed and onto the floor. His limbs felt like they were turning to putty as he instinctively turned invisible.   
_“ MADDIE! JACK! PLEASE HELP!!!”_

Ghostly sobs echoed in the room as he crawled fruitlessly into the corner near the couches and continued screaming as loudly as he could muster, _“DANNY! BADGER!! PLEASE?! I’M SCARED!!!”_

The larger man growled angrily and peered around the room with an annoyed air. “Subject VM01 seems to be able to turn invisible.” Something was clicked on the side of the man’s glasses and he smiled cruelly. 

He could see the young man crying and curling against himself in the corner of the room, but why rush the capture? Inciting a little panic would surely speed up Masters’s core enough for the drugs in his system to take and it wasn’t every day he had the pleasure of recovering an asset like this one. He walked forward and cocked his weapon within Vlad’s line of vision.

_“PLEASE! I don’t know what I did! Don’t shoot me again! I’m sorry!”_

The GIW agent grinned like a demon and slunk to the bed, pulling up the covers and shaking them for effect, he cooed. “ Come out, come out wherever you are you little freak.”

Rings began forming around Vlad’s waist and he cried out, _“NO! STOP! PLEASE!?”_

The man narrowed his eyes at the flash of white and walked over so that he was right next to Vladimir. Bending down, he cocked his head and grinned. “ Found you.”

Vlad felt his breathing hitch as an arm was cruelly yanked up. Claws slashed out and into the man’s white coat, leaving a splattering of crimson. 

The smaller agent rolled his eyes, “Agent D? Maybe restraining it would be best. I’ll administer the drug after you get his arms bound.”

Vlad kicked out and tried running only for his knees to crumple in. The large man was on him in a second. Tears were now streaming down Vlad’s face in waves. He felt his throat going hoarse from screaming so much in ghost undertones. _“IT HURTS! PLEASE! SOMEONE!?”_

The right arm was pinned behind his back as he flailed and the dart from earlier was pulled and tossed onto the floor as the left arm was ripped from its sling and bent back. There was a snap and Vlad convulsed, screaming so loudly that bulbs broke from the inhuman frequency.

Agent D glowered and a fist came down against the back of Vlad’s head with enough force to daze him. “ Shut up.”

The smaller agent bent down and reached a hand to Vlad’s neck. Something sharp was inserted as Vlad sobbed. _“Help...please….Help me…..”_

The small agent grabbed a piece of white fabric from his back pocket and quickly tied it across Vlad’s jaw to cut out the noise. 

The other was removing what looked like a black suit bag from his jacket. There was the sound of a zipper being pulled and Vlad winced through his tears as he was turned over and roughly inspected. Hand’s grazed over his shoulders, hips, and pajama pants intrusively. “He doesn’t seem to have any concealed implements he could use for escape.”

Vlad felt his head being lifted and blinked weakly through heavy lids as he was hefted up. Legs were crudely shoved into the bag as his eyes began closing.

The room was heavy… ‘A nap… Jack and Maddie had said he needed the rest…’

Pins and needles seemed to be shooting through the tips of his toes and up to his brow in waves. It was like being submerged under jello. Breathing slowed.   
Vladimir dimly registered that he must have turned back human otherwise the breathing would have been nothing more than a sigh or a misplaced muscle contraction from his other form. 

A zipper was being pulled upward and across his chest. The cold tickled slightly and Vladimir somewhat hazidely noted that one of them had taken his gown off before laying his torso into the bag.

An enraged scream broke through the static before the darkness completely won out and he attempted to stir only to bite down hard against his gag. His arm was still very much broken… Or at least cracked given that the hospital had simply wrapped it and cushioned it into a sling. 

“ WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!” That sounded like Daniel.

Agent D seemed to curse from above him and the zipper stopped abruptly, leaving his skin exposed to the cold air of the hospital room.

The other operative was reached over and lifting Vladimir’s arm up slightly against his restraints. “ We are just collecting a corpse Mr. Fenton. Back down.”


	16. Dreams

‘Corpse...hmmm….must be dead...yep….cold….’ Vlad mentally stopped in thought as his addled brain tried to process exactly what he was feeling. ‘ Wait… I’m cold? Doesn’t that mean I’m still alive?’

He tried moving his jaw to speak but nothing really clicked into place. It was like he had been sucked into his own body. He couldn’t even peek open his eyes or twitch a finger to show that he was still living...Living and in a great deal of pain. His arm was on fire.

Daniel seemed to be growling from the right of the room as the smaller man replaced Vlad’s elbow back into the bag before attempting to zip it up. “ Step away from the bag.”

Agent D chuckled darkly. “ I think this falls outside of your jurisdiction.”

There was a blast nearby and Vlad internally shook. He could smell melted plastic and a bit of upholstery from behind them. Not at all a pleasant aroma with his enhanced smell. 

Daniel was growling. “He isn’t something you can just bag up and cart away like a cheap ass cereal. This isn’t a fucking Kwik E Mart! It’s a hospital and you’re touching my family!”

The smaller agent was slipping a hand near his neck. ‘Pulse...he’s checking for my pulse….Why is that? Hmmmm….’

Whatever he was looking for, he had apparently found it as he retracted his hand. “ He’s clinically dead Mr. Fenton. No pulse, no vitals. He died earlier and we were called in to collect him in order to examine his contamination level.”

‘Again with the dead thing? I’m alive...Why are they saying I’m dead?’

Daniel wasn’t having any of that. “His contamination was treated earlier by Dr. Fenton and her husband. He’s clear and from that heartbeat, you two are so set on covering up? I’m willing to bet, very much alive.”

That seemed to get a reaction and something was clicked overhead and placed near his chest. It was cold and circular. ‘Weird...It’z all so….Man my head…..’

Agent D was pushing insistently with the item. “ An easy fix. This man is a wanted criminal after all.”

Daniel growled. “ Wanted my ass. He’s innocent.”

The smaller agent seemed to be shoving slightly against the bigger one. ‘Taps...Morse code?’

*Don’t.*

Agent D snarled. “ This is Vladimir Masters. He’s the reason the entire planet was almost swatted apart and you have the gall to claim he’s innocent?”

Daniel hissed. “ **That isn’t Plasmius.** ” There was a pause. “ I’m giving you two to the count of three to get out of his room or you’ll be learning the hard way what I do to villains.”

Vlad, at this point, was just to confused by everything to really care anymore. His brain and limbs demanded sleep. 

So that’s what he did. He slept and he dreamed of the oddest things. Flat devices that glowed bright blues and oranges, and hula hoops.The hula hoops were so entrancing… Brillant ribbons of white light that swirled and bobbed upward. 

Yes, hula hoops were a welcome distraction from the pain in his left arm and the confusion pulling apart his brain.


	17. Order

Daniel was ecstatic on his way to the Nasty Burger. 

Vlad had agreed to be trained by him! It was a role reversal scenario he would have never imagined being possible prior. Heck? From all of the missions he had traversed into space or he had eventually assumed that Vlad was probably hiding in the zone or had floated into orbit and burned to a husk because of his depleted energy from the disasteroid fragments surrounding earth’s junk belt.

Valiere of course stopped him as he flew over the city. Her and Dani had been living together for close to six months in a small gated community near her father’s research division at Axiom. Ghost security was now becoming a lucrative enterprise and, with the Fenton’s help, ghost shields were being installed through the city and in other haunted towns in America as quickly as cameras or home security systems.

Dani cornered him from behind as he swerved to avoid Valiere’s hover sled and tackled him in a tight hug. “ You’re back!”

Daniel sighed and rustled a hand through her hair. “ Hey squirt. Catch anything interesting besides a couple of level one poltergeists?”

Dani’s eyes narrowed and gleamed green. “ You’ll be catching my fists if you don’t give us some answers. You had us both worried!” 

Valiere slicked off her helmet and crossed her arms as she hovered. “ What green bean said. What happened Danny?”

Daniel sighed and motioned them to a nearby roof. “Okay. Brief recap…and I’m saying brief because right now someone needs me really bad. I got kidnapped by aliens and forced into an intergalactic human trafficking ring. I was stripped, sold as a fighter and then tossed into a giant pit for a gladiator deathmatch. And now? Well, now I’m on a burger run for another halfa I found out there.”

Dani and Valiere both immediately startled from their shock and Dani squeaked, “There’s someone else?! Is it a she or a-”

Daniel smiled sadly. “ It’s a he. He’s only two years older than me by the looks of things.”

Danni looked elated. “ Where is he? Can we meet him?”

Daniel paused and his eyes grew grieved. “ He’s in the hospital.”

Valerie's features became concerned and Dani’s enthusiasm died slightly. “ He’s not destabilizing is he?” Valiere prodded.

Daniel sighed. “ No. He’s pretty stable, just confused. He thought it was 1993 up until forty minutes ago and he’s currently messing around with my phone while my parents keep watch over him.”

Dani breathed a sigh of relief but quickly renewed her efforts for information. “ You never answered me! Can we meet him?”

Daniel looked from Valiere to Dani debatingly. “ I-...” He sighed and looked to the place his feet were perched defeatedly. “ I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Dani looked heartbroken. “ Why not?”

Daniel looked like he was going to tear his own hair out. “ It’s really complicated Dani.”

Valiere intervened. “ So uncomplicate it.”

Daniel sighed, “ I can try, but can we please talk as we move? The poor guy hasn’t eaten in forever and I promised him a burger.”

Valiere stiffened but quickly nodded and pulled up from the roof on her board. Dani launched upward and sat at the nose of the craft as they began keeping pace with Daniel.

Daniel swallowed as he flew. _“So… This is a little hard to explain. First, off you should probably know he was portal made.”_

Dani nodded from her perch and chirped back. _“ You said he thought it was 1993. Why would he think that?”_

Daniel glanced up at her and relented, _“Because he was turned into a halfa in 1988? He disappeared the day he got zapped and ended up dragged to a far off planet for some sort of sick amusement for five years.”_

Valiere raised an eyebrow. _“ And what about the other twenty-five years?”_  
Daniel winced. _“ Gone. Poof. He’s a literal halfa out of time. You should have seen him earlier with my phone! He was so fascinated and skittish that he’d break it."_

Dani frowned, _“ But why can’t we see him, Danny?”_

Daniel rubbed a hand against the back of his neck and glanced to the younger half ghost tiredly. _“ He doesn’t know how to use his abilities. My parents and I think-”_ His eyes flashed angrily.

_“ No… We know that some bastard took him and put these weird chips and stuff in him to use him as some sort of ghost powered weapon. We must have torn out close to one hundred and twenty wafers out of his ghost half before we allowed the doctors in to stitch him up.”_ There was a fatigued pause. 

_“ He’s scared Dani and I don’t know how you two would react to meeting him.”_

Valiere growled slightly and her eyes glimmered a deep ghostly purple. Her suit was giving her more than a tech upgrade at this point and ghostly attributes had started fussing with her just as they had Daniel and Vlad. She knew how confusing and terrifying not being able to use one’s abilities could be. Dani had moved into her house to keep her from phasing through the floor and suffocating for Christ’s sake. _“ Daniel? We need to meet him. We’re not going to hurt someone who’s been fucked with to that extent and by the sounds of things he needs a support group.”_

Dani nodded. _“ Instead of the Halfa Trio we can be the Halfa Quartet.”_

Daniel landed next to the Nasty Burger and walked up to the drive thru window to place an order while Valiere and Dani hovered behind him expectantly.

Star perked and smiled broadly at Daniel’s appearance. “ Hey, Danny. The usual?”

Daniel nodded but added, “ Can you make it for four?” Stiffening and glancing back at the two girls, he sighed. “ Er- You know what? Make that six orders of the Double Nasty Melt with six cokes. Combos.”

Star beamed. “ Sounds like a certain superhero is having a party.”

Daniel shifted into Daniel Fenton and swiped a hand through his bed head ridden hair to get it out of his face. 

Dani and Valiere both stiffened at his tired and sloppy appearance. Large dark circles were rimming his eyes and his usually ironed white button up was splayed out of his slacks.

Star noticed and worriedly looked to him. “Danny? Are you alright?”

Daniel smiled warmly. “ I’m fine. I just had a busy night at the hospital.”

Star nodded and ringed in the order. “ It’ll be ready in five minutes. Cash or card?”

Daniel flipped out his wallet. “ Card me.”

Star rolled her eyes and pulled the card from him. There was a swipe and she handed it back. “ Go sit down Fenton, you look like you’re about to fall over with a stiff breeze.”

Daniel snorted and repocketed his wallet before turning. “ Thanks for that vote of confidence, Star.”

She smirked and turned from the window to get the sluggish Monday morning work crew started on his order. 

Valiere landed and walked over to Daniel worriedly. “ Danny? You look like you got mugged.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Dani pointed to his feet. “ Where are your shoes?”

Daniel facepalmed tiredly. “ I must have left them in the hospital room.”

Valiere put a hand out to steady him. “ When was the last time you slept?”

Daniel paused. “On the transport vehicle, the space orcs imprisoned me on? If I had to guess a number I’d say I pulled an all-nighter like when I was fourteen.”

Valiere helped him to one of the park benches and sat him down while Danni posed for pictures for a group of tourists. Her green eyes continued looking back to Daniel with worry as she beamed for the camera. There was a click and she quickly detached herself and turned invisible. Sneaking back to their side, she allowed her rings to part and an athletic young woman with an oversized sweatshirt and harem pants plopped into focus and crossed her legs on the end of the bench as she sat down. 

Her backwards red baseball cap shifted as she fiddled with a strand of her hair and bit her lip. “ Why didn’t you sleep last night?”

Daniel shrugged and attempted to straighten his collar and tuck in his shirt. “It’s kind of hard to sleep when the guy next to you is unconscious and going power spastic. The walls in the hospital room he’s resting in are phase proof but the bed most certainly isn’t. That and he kept having frightmares throughout the night. After getting him back I guess I didn’t want to close my eyes and wake up to find him hurt or confused and frightened by an apparently instinctive trait he’s had no idea on how to control.”


	18. Groceries

Valiere sighed. _“ We’re meeting him Fenton and that’s final.”_

Daniel noted the purple in her eyes and sighed tiredly. “ Fine… Just promise me you both will be open-minded?”

Valiere opened her mouth to speak but Star’s voice cut them off. She was walking out with the requested meals in hand. Daniel stood and shifted to Phantom before smiling politely and reaching for one of the cokes. 

Grabbing them he nodded and went to duplicate to grab the food only for a sob laden scream to shatter through the air in ghost undertones.  
 _“ MADDIE! JACK! PLEASE HELP!!!”_

Dani and Valiere went wide-eyed and Daniel dropped the drinks in shock.

Another more fearful and desperate cry rang out a few seconds later and Daniel found himself flying up and speeding towards the hospital across town.

_“ DANNY! BADGER!! PLEASE?! I’M SCARED!!!”_

Valiere and Dani followed, Dani back in ghost form and Valiere fully sheathed in her armor with trails of sparking purple energy flickering from her eyes and around the visor in her helmet.

_“PLEASE! I don’t know what I did! Don’t shoot me again! I’m sorry!”_

Daniel growled, predatorial and angrily. Someone had shot Vladimir. The other halfa was now so panicked he was incapable of switching to human tones, either from the pain or the shock of being injured in a hospital. Claws broke through gloves as he flew and his eyes flashed a full sclera green from his core’s frenzied aggression at the thought.

Valerie snarled over the rush of air as another scream echoed, this time more desperate, _“NO! STOP! PLEASE!?”_

Ghostly sobs of agony and unrecognizable gibberish that could only be associated with Vladimir trying to rationalize what was happening to him racked through the air and all three halfas felt the hair on the back of their necks tingling as they approached the hospital. Ghost shields had been activated all along and under the streets near the building.

_“ IT HURTS! PLEASE! SOMEONE!?”_

Daniel hissed angrily as and dived to street level. The shield around the hospital was fluctuating at the wrong color. Every shield on the street was supposed to be green… This one was a brilliant pink. ‘ It’s the dual shield. Why is it activated?!’

Eyes trailed his surroundings and seeing the smoking pile of rubble that remained of the building beside him, he snarled. His parents saw him through the barrier and his father looked to him in confusion before running and rapping a fist against the surface. All three halfas focused on Jack’s words through the barrier. “ It’s some sort of glitch in the fuse box. Something fried the damned thing!”

Attuned ears stiffened at a sound emanating from within the barrier. The pained scream broke and shattered glass in segments on the fourth floor causing shavings of clear ice like shards to cascade over onto the sidewalks and awnings below. Jack turned with a look of horror and realization on his features.   
Daniel snarled through the shield. “Dad? Go inside and tell everyone to cover their ears.”

Jack nodded and quickly ran in. Daniel’s eyes narrowed and he took a deep breath. Dani yanked Valiere back and motioned for her to crouch as she extended a shield.

Daniel’s Ghostly Wail rippled and lashed against the barrier in a deafening crescendo of sound. Large cracks in the construct glimmered before various fuses under the building short-circuited and exploded from the pressure.

Eyes went wide at the weakly whisper that faded through the air. _“Help...please….Help me…..”_

Daniel wasted no time once the barrier crumpled and screamed to Valiere and Dani as he flew through the third-floor wall. “The fourth floor is ghost proof! Phase through the elevator shaft and into the ward.”

Both girls nodded in unison and followed at close quarters beside him at record speeds. The injured halfa’s cries had completely vanished and with that silence came a sense of horrible foreboding. Hands ripped through the metal doors of the fourth-floor lobby like tissue paper as they rushed to the ajar door at the end of the hall.

They stepped in to see two men dressed in white kneeling over what appeared to be a black body bag.

Daniel’s hands charged once his gaze fell to Vlad’s seemingly unconscious and gagged form. Tears lines could be clearly seen against his now shaven jaw and a large bruise had started forming on his cheek. 

A zipper was being pulled upward and across his now gownless chest and Daniel felt himself screaming in rage as he realized Vlad’s broken arm had been yanked forcefully behind his back and secured.

“ WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!” 

Both men startled and the larger one on Vlad’s left side cursed before staring through his tinted black sunglasses toward Daniel and the two halfas beside him. Both now bristled as well, Danni with charged hands and Valiere with a gun pointed toward the larger male.

The smaller agent raised his hands and chuckled somewhat darkly before reaching into the bag and pulling Vlad’s right elbow out for them to see. “ We are just collecting a corpse Mr. Fenton. Back down.” His eyes narrowed to Daniel’s charged hands and to the Dani and Valiere in silent challenge.

Three growls merged into one as the agent took their silence for an invitation and languidly popped the fourth male’s limb back into the bag before attempting to zip it up. 

Daniel raised a hand threateningly.“ Step away from the bag.”

This time the larger chuckled and his brown eyes glared up to them condescendingly. “I think this falls outside of your jurisdiction.”

Valiere snarled under her breath and whispered in ghost speak, _“ Try this for jurisdiction you kidnapping son of a bitch.”_

The blast from her pistol whizzed by the agents’ heads and melted into the couch behind them with a large boom. Burnt plastic and synthetics fumigated the space and the larger looked up angrily before attempting to move the black bag Vlad was lying in.

Daniel felt his fangs breaking into his bottom lip. They were still ignoring them. His voice echoed with authority as he whipped out a charged hand. “He isn’t something you can just bag up and cart away like a cheap ass cereal. This isn’t a fucking Kwik E Mart! It’s a hospital and you’re touching **my** family!”

The smaller agent pulled the bad out from behind the bed slightly so that all three could see Vladimir. Poking a hand to Vlad’s neck he smirked. “ He’s clinically dead Mr. Fenton. No pulse, no vitals. He died earlier and we were called in to collect him in order to examine his contamination level.”

‘ Fucking bullshit.’

_“They gagged him! Who would gag a corpse!?”_ Dani snarled.

Valiere seemed to share a similar sentiment but she added. _“ Danny? His pulse is faint but he’s not dead. I think they drugged him.”_

Daniel snapped at the smaller man and another blast, this time aimed by the blonde’s head instead of the muscle man by his side, burnt through a small portion of the man’s coat as it passed. “ His contamination was treated earlier by Dr. Fenton and her husband. He’s clear and from that heartbeat, you two are so set on covering up? I’m willing to bet, very much alive.”

Brown eyes stared up to Daniel with a primal rage as a gun was pulled from a shoulder holster and cocked above Vlad’s heart. There was a shove and he retorted smugly,“ An easy fix. This man is a wanted criminal after all.”

Daniel growled. “ Wanted my ass. He’s innocent.”

Agent D snarled. “ This is Vladimir Masters. He’s the reason the entire planet was almost swatted apart and you have the gall to claim he’s innocent?”

Both Valiere and Dani froze in place and looked to the young man bound and gagged in horror.

Valiere looked to Daniel for guidance as Dani’s eyes narrowed. _“Liars.”_

Daniel pointed his hand toward Vlad and snapped. “ That isn’t **Plasmius** .” 

Valiere reached for his shoulder with one hand. He reassured with conviction. _“That’s not the Vlad we know! He’s just a confused kid that these fuckers have been using as some sort of Bucky Barnes knock off. It’s their fault… All of it.”_

Dani and Valiere exchanged a look with one another before gazing back toward Vladimir’s tear-stained form. They would ask for explanations after the obviously younger version of Vlad Masters was saved from the two GIW cronies trying to snatch him out of the hospital.

Daniel’s eyes narrowed as he turned to the two men. “ I’m giving you two to the count of three to get out of his room or you’ll be learning the hard way what I do to villains.”

The larger scuffed and the gun was pulled away from Vladimir abruptly. “Better scenario? We take this terrorist with us and you all go about your merry little ways?”

Valiere growled. “ Funny? I don’t have his face on file for any crimes. He’s clear in the system and you’d be hard pressed to win an argument on him being Vlad Masters with the age difference between the two of them.”

The agent scuffed. “ We can do whatever we want. He doesn’t exist.”


	19. Going Down

Valiere raised an eyebrow. Her helmet was broadcasting and recording everything to her files at home, Axiom’s lab computer, and the Fenton’s control tower. She was the teams’ liability waiver for damages in Amity and these two bozos didn't even have the sense to see they were walking into a trap. “ What do you mean he doesn't exist?! He’s right there!”

A zipper was pulled up fully and the bag was lifted so that it was balanced in front of the larger man. An arm wrapped around the spot Vlad’s lower torso resided in and tightened to keep the halfa upright. “ This kid died years ago. He has no rights, no identity, he’s a simple donation to science with benefits.” 

Daniel felt a roar of rage building in his throat. “ So this isn’t the same Vlad Masters we knew, correct? That was your handiwork.”

The smaller man noted Valerie's helmet and paled. His associate answered braggingly before he could warn him. “ We activated the kill code for that failure after the disasteroid crisis was averted. The chip did what it was supposed to but didn’t finish the job. It failed to blow the freak’s damned head off. When we couldn’t find the body we realized someone probably collected but we never would have guessed the little twerp was still alive after all of this time. Think of it as a lesson in happenstance. This time we’ll be sure to have a mutt with the off switch wedged deeper in his brain.”

Valiere felt her knees shaking and Dani was looking to the black bag in unrestrained horror. 

Daniel raised a fist. “ Congrats jackass, you just gave us all we need to prove his innocence and then some. So this time? I’m ordering you to put him down.”

The man snickered. “ What did I really give you besides the fact that this was Vladimir Masters at one point? He’s still very much accountable.”

Two rings morphed around the bag and Vlad phased unconsciously through both the material and his captor’s arms before a portal appeared and snatched him up. The two men looked utterly baffled at the development and Daniel snarled. “ I gave you to the count of three and you refused.”

Valiere caught Vlad against herself as the portal opened next to them and carried him out into the hall to inspect the damage. Daniel cracked his knuckles and walked forward fluidly, each step lacing with ice against the laminate. “ Kidnapping, forced compliance, negligence for human rights, attempted murder… The GIW has been pretty busy, hasn’t it? And to top this all off you openly attacked an individual protected by international law. The United Nations recognized him as a human being under their protection the moment he was laid down on US soil.”

Both men paled rapidly and one seemed to reach for his earpiece in a panic. Fists grappled against both of their jackets. “We are no one’s property and the fact you screwed up someone’s life so severely for a power trip-”

Fangs pointed menacingly and eyes became carnal. “-makes you prime real estate for the pent up aggression I’ve been harboring since I was fourteen.”

A charge of electricity snaked up both men from Daniel’s gloved palms. “Enjoy the nap.”

There were a few moments of panicked twitching before both men slumped in his hold. Picking up a lamp near the bed, Daniel casually ripped it from the wall and snapped it in his hands to make a pair of temporary cuffs. Securing the two together, he walked out into the hall and collapsed tiredly beside Valiere and Dani. Valerie had removed Vlad’s gag and was propping his obviously broken and bloodied left arm up against her leather jacket. 

The halfa was unresponsive to the movements and Daniel felt himself worriedly trying to rouse him to no avail. Dani darted into the room after a few moments and came back with what looked like an emptied dart and the gun that had presumably fired it.

An elevator dinged and Maddie and Jack could be seen running frantically to them. Boots skidded against laminate and Jack’s arms quickly reached out for Vladimir. Vlad’s limp form slumped against his shoulder as Maddie ran a finger to his neck. Valerie's arm reached for her wrist. “ He’s alive Mrs. Fenton. The pulse will be to faint for you to pick up on if you try feeling for it.”

Jack looked up to Danny and Valerie in a panic. “ Why isn’t he waking up?!”

Dani tossed the gun onto the floor in front of them. “ I think they hit him with some sort sleeping dart.”

Valiere grimaced and turned to Daniel. “ Okay...Explanations. **Now**.”

Daniel winced. “ It’s a long explanation.”

Dani kneeled down and put an arm to Daniel’s shoulder. “ Then let’s get him out of here first, talking in a war zone is going to do nothing for anyone’s nerves.”

Jack was already lifting Vlad into his arms and carrying him toward the elevator. Maddie was looking into the hospital room. Amethyst eyes trailed to tattered furniture and then to the two bound men before it fully clicked as to who had harmed her friend so grievously. She went to step in the room, only for Valiere to reach out to her shoulder. “ Daniel already beat them up and I got a confession in my suit’s data file for what they did.”

Maddie snarled, “ It’s not enough! They are the reason my family had to-”

Valerie winced, “ Revenge doesn’t solve anything, Mrs. Fenton… I almost threw my life away for revenge…” Eyes glowed purple. “ Don’t put yourself in a situation that’s going to come back to bite you in the ass.”

Maddie slumped slightly. “ They just tried taking my friend out of his room to experiment and harm him...possibly even kill him…” She gritted her teeth. “ I want to hurt them Valiere…”

Valiere gently tugged at her shoulder and closed the room door before melting the handle. “ And we will, legally. This won’t happen to another person ever again but we need patience to deal with this correctly.”

Maddie smiled slightly and looked to Valiere weakly. There was a brief nod and they both turned from the door to follow Jack. Danny stayed behind. Dani paused and looked t him curiously and he smiled weakly in comfort. “ Someone has to alert the authorities and clear the red tape… I’ll catch up once I settle things.”

Dani nodded briefly and quickly sped to the elevator as Valiere and Maddie entered the lift. There was a ding as the doors closed, briefly illuminating Jack hunching over Vlad protectively and Maddie looking at the bloodied limb laying in his lap.

Daniel grimaced and turned to the phone at the end of the hall. He had quite a few calls to make.


	20. Pain Relief

Vlad furrowed his brow slightly at the pinch near the crook of his elbow and shifted druggedly against whatever was holding him upright. A large arm seemed to be supporting his right side while his damaged left was held aloft.

“ Those government men did a number on him Mr. Fenton...The ulma has been completely snapped and the arm is out of socket.”

The grip tightened on his right side and Vlad felt himself being laid down on a cot. The left arm was still being held and prodded but no pain or ache seemed to accompany the movements, just a dull phantom sensation.

There was a pause and Jack whispered, “Dr.Blaise? After we wrap and adjust the limb, I want him signed out of this hospital.”

The man on his right side shuffled slightly with his limb and pulled something taunt. “Of course...After those men broke into his room you have every right to take him home but his nourishment deprivation is still-”

An unfamiliar voice echoed somewhere on his right side, behind Jack and obviously a girl around his age. “ Nourishment deprivation?”

Maddie answered from somewhere on his left and a gloved hand began forking through his hair in a gentle patting motion. “ Valiere? We’ll explain everything at length later..."

A younger voice, again female, chirped. “ Soooo….Vlad is going to be alright, right?”

There was a small silence and Vlad shifted and furrowed his brow deeper, there was a muted ache in his left arm now that almost felt like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Someone noted the movement and a hand quickly went to his cheek. He winced and retracted slightly from the hold. That hurt...that hurt a lot!

Someone was soothing again as he darted in and out, “ Vlad? Vladimir?”

_“Mads….M….Sleepy...H-hurts…..”_

To his surprise, the older female voice switched to the same dialect. _“ Plasmius? Can you hear us?”_

Vlad coughed and grimaced. His throat felt sore from screaming, _“ Not….my name...I’m Vladimir…..What-”_

Something sharp went into the crook of his right arm and he gasped tearily and opened his eyes in a daze to see a bright light overhead. He retracted slightly and tried to free his left arm only for a strong grip on his collarbone to keep him stationary. _“No...Don’t...Please…”_

The youngest voice attempted to soothe him, _“ It’s alright. You’re safe. They just need to fix up your arm and then we’ll take you home…”_

Vlad clenched his eyes shut and shook slightly against the bedding. _“ Home?...”_

This time the older voice answered but it was slightly saddened in infliction, _“ Yeah Masters...Home…”_

Vlad shivered and reopened his eyes in a panic, _“ The light...Please make it stop...Wake me up? Please? I don’t want to dream about the men in the white coats again….”_

There was a silence and the older female was suddenly leaning over him. Deep mocha skin and startling glowing purple eyes locked with his dazed blue. _“What dreams?”_

Vlad’s eyes became haunted. _“ I don’t-”_

She redirected him gently and persisted, _“ What dreams Vlad?”_

Vlad swallowed, _“ The dreams where they tied me to the tables….Men with masks and metal claws were ripping out things and ribs were snapped out and-”_

An ashen paler consumed his features and he tried tearing his arm away again, _“ No more...please! I’ll do anything just don’t-”_

This time her hands latched to his cheeks and directed his eyes so that he wasn’t staring into the light above him. _“ Woah….Easy...We aren’t doing that. We’re just getting your arm wrapped up so it can heal. Danny is taking care of those men for us...Shhh…”_

Vlad slackened slightly and began closing his eyes blearily. Something had pinched into his arm again. _“ You…have pretty...eyes…”_

Someone laughed and a heart-shaped face quickly darted up in front of his left side, this one with Daniel’s neon green eyes. 

He furrowed his brow weakly and questioned, _“ Are you... Daniel’s sister?... You look like him….”_

The girl gave a sideways glance and sighed somewhat conflicted before answering, _“You can say I’m a cousin of his...My name’s Dani.”_

Vlad blinked and tried to peer around for Maddie, _“ Mads? Did...Alicia….actually...get married?...I knew she was….unoriginal...but naming her daughter after your….son-….ugh...my head-...it hurts…”_

The older girl, Valiere, stared at him in confusion before turning to Maddie, “ Mrs. Fenton? Why is he speaking mostly in Ghost Speak?”

Maddie shrugged and seemed to reply something but he was quickly becoming numb to his surroundings again. Dani was redirecting him, _“Woah...easy…”_

Vlad smiled weakly. _“ Sorry….Probably coming off as rude….-room’s spinning…”_

Dani smiled gently and nodded, _“ Yeah, they just gave you some pain relievers so they can fix the stitches those guys yanked out.”_

Vlad blinked dazedly before realizing he was being propped up again with several bodies muttering in slurred gibberish blocking the view of his right side. Valiere seemed to be having an animated conversation with Maddie. He shifted lightly and made a move to retract his arm from the pile of bodies only for something to grip the limb tightly in place. Dani moved and turned his face so he wasn’t staring at them. 

He winced and she apologized, _“ Sorry!”_

There was a pause and he grimaced before trying to look again. She apprehended the movement and shook her head, _“ Vlad? You don’t want to see them setting and stitching the limb. Look this way. Over here.”_

She snapped a few times and he focused back to her. It was like trying to crawl out from a concave waterbed with how his surroundings morphed and flickered, unallowing of a decent grip on reality or clarity. _“ Stitches?...Ugh...Why-”_

A head pitched forward and she quickly caught him against her shoulder. An arm began patting his back in an attempt to soothe him and then there was a sound similar to a firecracker being set off in a tin pan. His arm jerked with the movement and the calming affections became all the more prolific as he cried out from some odd sensation rolling from the joint in his shoulder. It was like being pulled taut by chains again and he blearily voiced the thought, unaware of anything but the now muted pain and the calming warmth trying to soothe him. 

Dani was saying something but he wasn’t quite sure what as his eyes began closing again. All he knew was he was warm. He liked the warmth. He usually didn’t have that luxury when he was allowed to sleep in the pit. Dani was retracting him now and looking at him with a tinge of disbelief and horror. He probably just fucked up again...Hopefully, that wouldn’t end with the collar. The collar was always bad…

Someone else was prodding a hand to him and he groaned somewhat sluggishly at the movement. It was red, a bright cheery red like cherry pop rocks or a can of coke. Did they even still have coke? The future was so weird…

There was more chattering around him as he shivered. He was cold again. Dani’s green eyes turned back to him apologetically and something was being wrapped around him. A blanket. Blankets were nice...so were beds and pillows…

He hummed contently in the momentary reprieve.


End file.
